Re: Defining constants causes integration to hang
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg114248] Re: Defining constants causes integration to hang
- From: Leonid Shifrin <lshifr at gmail.com>
- Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 06:55:52 -0500 (EST)
Hi Tony, This will work: Block[{a}, g2[a_] = (# /. r -> h2) - (# /. r -> h1) &[ 2*a*Integrate[ Dt[n12[r], r, Constants -> {n1, dni, lD12}] (n12[r]* Sqrt[n12[r]^2*r^2 - a^2]), r]]]; But the answer is not nice. Anyway, at least it's the answer. Regards, Leonid On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 11:37 AM, amannuc <amannuc at yahoo.com> wrote: > Dear Mathematica group, > > I have found a situation where using the Constants option in Dt causes > an indefinite integration to hang. This is unexpected behavior because > when I don't provide the Constants information, the integration > finishes quickly. I am surprised that in this case providing more > information causes the problem. I am using Mathematica 7.0. > > The following works: > n12[r_] := n1 - r dni/lD12 (* n1, dni and lD12 are actually constants > *) > > g2[a_] := 2*a*Integrate[ Dt[n12[r], r] (n12[r]* Sqrt[n12[r]^2*r^2 - > a^2]), > {r, h2, h1}] > > and the resulting definite integral seems correct but contains a > number of spurious derivatives such as: Dt[dni, r], Dt[lD12, r], etc. > These derivatives are zero because n1, dni and lD12 are actually > constants, not dependent on r. When I specify such in the Dt[n12[r], > r] expression, the integral never finishes executing. That is, in the > above expression I replace > Dt[n12[r], r] with > Dt[n12[r], r, Constants -> {n1, dni, lD12} ]. The integral now does > not finish. > > So, if I do not use the Constants option in Dt, I have the spurious > derivatives in the calculated expression (e.g. Dt[dni,r]) which I > seek to remove. One way to do this is to use the transformation rule: > Dt[dni, r] -> 0 (for example). It turns out that I can apply this type > of rule one at a time, and once only. > > For example, the following works fine: > > g3[a] = g2[a] /. Dt[dni, r] -> 0 > > which removes the spurious derivatives of dni. If I try to remove > another spurious derivative, the integral hangs. Thus, the following > hangs (trying to remove Dt[dn1, r]: > > g4[a] = g3[a] /. Dt[dn1, r] -> 0 > > It turns out the key fact is that I apply the transformation twice. > For example, I could switch the order of the above two transformation > statements. In that case, the first one completes but the second one > hangs. > > Any help/advice is appreciated. > > -Tony > >