Integrals of differential binomials and Chebyshevs criterion

Khristo N. Boyadzhiev
Ohio Northern University
August 2006

Expressions of the form

,

where are arbitrary coefficients and are rational numbers, are called differential
binomials. People have noticed long ago that the integrals

(1)

can be evaluated in terms of elementary functions if at least one of the numbers

(2)

is integer. In such case the integral (1) can be transformed by an appropriate substitution to an
integral of a rational function.
The Russian mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev (1821-1894) proved that the above
condition is also necessary. The proof is not elementary. We discuss the sufficiency here.
Case 1. The number is integer. Expanding by the binomial formula we write

the integrand as a rational function of the simple radicals . Then the substitution

, where is the largest of all denominators , will remove the radicals entirely..

Case 2. is integer. Then we set

to obtain

and hence
 ,

which belongs to Case 1 now, as is integer.

Case 3. is integer. We first transform the integral by factoring out this way

The result is a new integral of a differential binomial which belongs to Case 2, as the number

is integer.

Examples.
1. Consider the integral

where . We have Case 2, as

and so we set
. (3)

We do not need to solve in (3) for in order to find . Instead, we first compute

and further
 .

2. Consider now

where Here is not integer, but is. We are in

Case 3, so we write

and set
(4)

Directly from (4) we compute

and therefore,

and finally