Is this integral zero: $\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-ipr}p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2} dp$

definite integralsfourier transformintegration

I am calculating a propagator in Quantum Field Theory and I get the following integral:

$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-ipr}p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2} dp$$ where $r,m$ are constants. Now we see that the exponential can be split up into cosine and sine. Cosine is even and the remaining function is odd and so the $\cos(pr)p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2}$ is odd and so the integral with $\cos(pr)p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2}$ as the integrand is $0$. Now, sine is odd and the remaining function is odd and so the $\sin(pr)p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2}$ is even. Thus the integral is $-2i\int_{0}^{\infty} \sin(pr)p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2} dp$ . Now I plotted the integrand $\sin(pr)p\sqrt{p^2 + m^2}$ and I noticed rapid oscillations. Does this mean the integral is $0$? If not, how do I evaluate this integral?

Best Answer

Usually when one resorts to distribution theory to compute Fourier transforms, very little mechanical computation is used. The process asserts a few nice properties since, by the definition of the distributional Fourier transform, if they apply to a Schwarz function, they must apply to a tempered distribution as well. Using Fourier transform properties (with crucial sign changes due to the application on a test function), we can work backwards to show what we want is

$$\mathcal{F}\left\{p\sqrt{p^2+m^2}\right\} = i\frac{d}{dr}\mathcal{F}\left\{\sqrt{p^2+m^2}\right\} = \frac{d}{dr}\frac{1}{|r|}\mathcal{F}\left\{\frac{p}{\sqrt{p^2+m^2}}\right\}$$ $$ = i\frac{d}{dr}\frac{1}{|r|}\frac{d}{dr}\mathcal{F}\left\{\frac{1}{\sqrt{p^2+m^2}}\right\} = 2i\frac{d}{dr}\frac{1}{|r|}\frac{d}{dr}K_0(|mr|)$$

where the monomial product-to-derivative and derivative-to-monomial product properties were used, and $K_n$ is the $n$th modified Bessel function of the second kind. The absolute values are in place due to the property that the Fourier transform of a radial distribution is radial. Taking one derivative retrieves the formula Mathematica confirms

$$K_0'(x) = -K_1(x) \implies \mathcal{F}\left\{p\sqrt{p^2+m^2}\right\} = -2i\frac{d}{dr}\left|\frac{m}{r}\right|K_1(|mr|)$$

*Technically there is a missing Dirac mass in the second equality in the chain of properties, but it vanishes since the function at that step is odd.

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