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I am trying to solve the following integration, where $a,b,c,d,e$ and $f$ are constants:

$$I=\int\frac{x^4+ax^3+bx^2+cx+d}{x^3(x^3+ex+f)}dx$$

I tried to solve the integral using the following two methods, but both seemed to be very much complicated:

Method 1:

Using partial fraction decomposition by calculating the three roots of the denominator. Among the three roots, one root is real and the other two roots are complex (both are complex conjugates of each other). However, the roots are too much complicated and are as follows:

root1 root2 root3

Method 2:

I tried to expand the denominator using binomial series as follows: $$I=\int\frac{\frac{1}{x^2}+\frac{a}{x^3}+\frac{b}{x^4}+\frac{c}{x^5}+\frac{d}{x^6}}{1+\frac{e}{x^2}+\frac{f}{x^3}}dx$$ Then writing $\epsilon=\frac{e}{x^2}+\frac{f}{x^3}$, the above integral becomes $$I=\int\left(\frac{1}{x^2}+\frac{a}{x^3}+\frac{b}{x^4}+\frac{c}{x^5}+\frac{d}{x^6}\right)\left(1+\epsilon\right)^{-1}dx$$ For a quite good approximation, it is required to expand the binomial series up to $\epsilon^{11}$, i.e. $40$ terms in the expression for the integral and this is too much cumbersome.

Even Mathematica expresses the result as a conditional expression and it is required to provide the range of the constants $a,b,c,d,e$ and $f$ to obtain the exact expression.

QUESTION:

Is it possible to solve the integration analytically using any other suitable method? If no such methods are possible, do there exist any approximation technique that might work?

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  • $\begingroup$ You can start by reducing the degree of the numerator using polynomial division. $\endgroup$
    – Nemo
    Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 9:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Nemo Should I divide the numerator by the cubic polynomial in the denominator? Otherwise, the degree of the denominator is more than the numerator. $\endgroup$
    – Richard
    Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 10:22
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, that's what I meant. $\endgroup$
    – Nemo
    Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 10:35
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    $\begingroup$ There is simplified form of the roots of the cubic equation that might help en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trigonometry/… $\endgroup$
    – Nemo
    Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 10:44
  • $\begingroup$ there is really no hope for a compact closed-form expression; if some of your parameters are small, you might exploit that, but otherwise why not just evaluate the integral numerically over the desired interval? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 11:31

1 Answer 1

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Too long for a comment. You should discuss on the denominator, which has 0 as a triple root if $f\not=0$. Assuming this, you have three non-zero roots for $X^3+eX+f$ and you have explicit formulas to calculate them. Reducing the rational fraction in simple elements is then easy.

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