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I want to do the following integral: $$\int^\ x*H(x-a) dx $$

In mathematica I get that $$\int^\ x*H(x-a) dx = \frac{1}2*(x-a)*(x+a)*H(x-a)$$

where H(x-a) Is the heaviside function.

But by hand I can't find the same result.What I'm trying to do is that:

$$\int^\ x*H(x-a) dx = \frac{1}2*x^2*H(x-a)+\frac{1}2\int^\ x^2*Dirac(x-a) dx = \frac{1}2*x^2*H(x-a)+\frac{a^2}2 $$

That is in no way near the answer the software gave me. How can I compute the initial integral by hand to match the software?

I Thank you very much for your help

1 Answers1

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Actually, your solution is not that far off if you keep in mind that the indefinite integral is only determined up to the addition of a constant. However, here is my way to compute the integral:

First off, we need to clarify: The Heaviside function I'll use is defined by $$H(x) = \left\lbrace \begin{array}{cl} 1 & , ~ x \geq 0 \\ 0 & , ~ x < 0 \end{array}\right.$$

An indefinite integral is just a function that can be written as a definite integral with a variable as the upper bound:

$$\left( \int x \cdot H(x-a) ~ dx \right)(x_0) = \int\limits_a^{x_0} x \cdot H(x-a) ~ dx$$

Now we just have to divide the upper term into two cases:

If $x_0 \geq a$ then $H(x-a) = 1$ for all $x \in [a,x_0]$ and therefore the (right) intgral equals $$\int\limits_a^{x_0} x~dx = \frac{1}{2}(x_0)^2 - \frac{1}{2} a^2 = \frac{1}{2} (x_0 - a)(x_0+a)$$

For $x_0 <a$ we have $H(x-a) = 0$ for all $x \in [x_0, a]$ and therefore the integral equals $0$.

So if we merge both cases one may write $$\int\limits_a^{x_0} x \cdot H(x-a) ~ dx = \frac{1}{2} (x_0-a)(x_0 + a)H(x_0 - a)$$ which is the solution you obtained using Mathematica.

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