Introduction
The complex curve integral is the function-theoretic generalization of the integral from real analysis. Instead of an interval,rectifiable curve serves as the integration domain. The integral is taken over complex-valued functions instead of real-valued functions.
Definition - Rectifiable Curve
Let
be a rectifiable curve,
a mapping.
is said to be integrable over
if there exists a complex number
such that for every
, there exists a
such that for every partition
of the interval
with
for all
, we have

The complex number
is called the integral of
over
and is denoted by
designated.
Note - Integrability
entspricht in reaL Analysis it corresponds to be oriented area of rectangles that approximate yhe integral in the Reimann integral.
calculate the Complex numbersthe Riemann Sum of all individual terms a decomposition of the interval
with 
means, that the Integral
can be approximate with arbitrary precision using Riemann Sum.
Integration over chains
If
is a chain in
, then a function
is said to be integrable over
if it is integrable over each
, and we set

Connection to real integration
If
is even piecewise differentiable, then the curve integral can be reduced to an integral over the parameter domain using the Mean Value Theorem, and we have in this case

where a complex-valued function is integrated over a real interval, with the real and imaginary parts calculated separately.
Example 1
We consider the curve
,
, and the function
. Since the curve is differentiable, we have

Example 2
We modify our first example slightly and consider the curve
,
, and the function
for
. Since the curve is differentiable, we have

Representation of the integral
Both examples together give us

where

This fact plays an important role in the definition of the Residue and the proof of the Complex Analysis/Residue Theorem
Properties
Independence of parameterization
Let
be a piecewise
-path,
a
-diffeomorphism that preserves orientation. Then
is a piecewise
-path and we have

i.e. the value of the integral is independent of the chosen parameterization of the path.
Proof
It is

Linearity
Since the integral is defined over linear combinations of
, it is itself linear in the integrand, i.e. we have

for rectifiable
,
and integrable
.
Orientation reversal
Let
be a rectifiable path, and let
be the reversed path defined by
. Then for integrable

Proof
It is

Approximation by polygonal chains
The presented version of the integration path seems very general, but most integration paths that occur in practice are piecewise continuously differentiable. Since it is easier to work with piecewise continuously differentiable paths, we want to show in the following how an arbitrary integration path for continuous integrands can be approximated by polygonal chains. This can be used to transfer statements about general rectifiable paths to polygonal chains.
Statement
Let
be a region,
a rectifiable path,
continuous, and
. Then there exists a polygonal chain
with
,
and
.
Proof
First of all let
be a disk. Since
is compact, there exists a
with
. On
,
is uniformly continuous, so we can choose a
such that
for
with
holds.
Step 1 - Partition of Interval
Now choose, according to the definition of the integral, a partition
of
such that
for
and

holds.
Step 2 - Convex Combination
Define a convex combination with
that connects
and
and
with
:

Step 3 - Convex Combination
With
and
the path
is defined as:
![{\displaystyle {\widehat {\gamma }}(t):={\frac {1}{t_{i}-t_{i-1}}}{\big (}\gamma (t_{i-1})(t_{i}-t)+\gamma (t_{i})(t-t_{i-1}){\big )},\qquad t\in [t_{i-1},t_{i}]}](../71b199bac2bb39eb640f5cb2ec0ea079880bc1e8.svg)
Step 4 - Partition of Interval
So
is the polygonal chain that connects the points
by straight lines. In particular,
lies in
. By construction, we also have
for
. It follows that
Step 5 - Inequality

This implies the claim.
Step 6 - Generalization
If
is not a disk, we cover
with finitely many disks that are a subset of
and apply the above construction to each sub-path. This implies the claim in the general case.
See also
Page Information
You can display this page as
Wiki2Reveal slides
Wiki2Reveal
The'Wiki2Reveal slides were created for the
Complex Analysis'
and the Link for the Wiki2Reveal Slides was created with the link generator.
Translation and Version Control
This page was translated based on the following [https://de.wikiversity.org/wiki/Kurs:Funktionentheorie/Kurvenintegral
Wikiversity source page] and uses the concept of Translation and Version Control for a transparent language fork in a Wikiversity:
https://de.wikiversity.org/wiki/Kurs:Funktionentheorie/Kurvenintegral