Re: Numerical integration inside numerical integration
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg48835] Re: Numerical integration inside numerical integration
- From: Paul Abbott <paul at physics.uwa.edu.au>
- Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 02:13:04 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- References: <cark1d$r7v$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <cark1d$r7v$1 at smc.vnet.net>, blah12 at mail.com wrote: > I'm trying to solve numerically an integral like, > > A=some_value > NIntegrate[f[y,u]*Log[1+NIntegrate[g[y,u,s], {s, A, \[Infinity]}]], > {u, -\[Infinity],\[Infinity]},{y, -\[Infinity],\[Infinity]}] > > I know I am doing this wrong as the inner integration fails because > it doesn't have specific numerical values for y and u. > I guess Mathematica doesn't perform numerical integrations from the > outside to the inside (and so passing each time values of y,u to > the inner integration). It does not fail. Consider the following example: g[y_, u_, s_] := Exp[-s] (Exp[u^2 + 2y^2] - 1) f[y_, u_] := Exp[-(u^2 + y^2)] For these g and f we can compute the integral in closed form: Simplify[Log[Integrate[g[y, u, s], {s, 0, Infinity}] + 1], {u, y} \[Element] Reals] Integrate[f[y, u] %, {u, -Infinity, Infinity}, {y, -Infinity, Infinity}] If we use NIntegrate instead of Integrate (your integral with A = 0), NIntegrate[f[y, u] Log[NIntegrate[g[y, u, s], {s, 0, Infinity}] + 1], {u, -Infinity, Infinity}, {y, -Infinity, Infinity}] then, after a couple of NIntegrate::"inum" messages (which arise, as you suspected, because the inner NIntegrate attempts to evaluate its argument before the values of u and y are passed to its integrand), we get the same answer as from the exact computation. Defining the function h[y_, u_?NumericQ] := f[y, u] Log[NIntegrate[g[y, u, s], {s, 0, Infinity}] + 1] allows one to compute the integral without any error message, NIntegrate[h[y, u], {u, -Infinity, Infinity}, {y, -Infinity, Infinity}] because the argument of NIntegrate is now not evaluated unless u is numeric. Cheers, Paul -- Paul Abbott Phone: +61 8 9380 2734 School of Physics, M013 Fax: +61 8 9380 1014 The University of Western Australia (CRICOS Provider No 00126G) 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009 mailto:paul at physics.uwa.edu.au AUSTRALIA http://physics.uwa.edu.au/~paul