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TheoremStatement: Literature-sourcedProof: AI-generatedprecheck passaudited 2026-08-11
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Separate improper convergence implies convergence of the principal value

Statement

If the two one-sided improper integrals at an interior singularity converge separately, then the Cauchy principal value exists and equals their sum. If both tails of a whole-line improper integral converge separately, its principal value exists and equals the whole-line improper integral.

The converses need not hold.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: Separate convergence at the two singular ends in either setting.

[L1]

A mixed improper value is the sum of the two independent limits (Improper integrals with several singular ends).

[L2]

Moving finite split points preserves both convergence and value (Improper convergence is independent of finite truncations and split points).

[L3]

Principal values use coupled symmetric truncations (Cauchy principal values at a finite singularity and on the real line).

[L4]

For every rational p, ∫01x−p dx converges exactly when p<1, and ∫1∞x−p dx converges exactly when p>1 (The improper p-test for rational exponents).

[L5]

The whole-line Cauchy principal value is lim⁡R→∞∫−RRf for a function locally Riemann integrable on the real line, and it does not assert that the two tails converge separately (Cauchy principal values at a finite singularity and on the real line).

Proof

technique · direct
1.1

At an interior point c, the two truncated terms in [L3] tend separately to the two finite one-sided values. Given ε>0, take the common smaller truncation scale on which each term is within ε/2 of its limit; the triangle inequality then puts their sum within ε of the sum in [L1].

L3L1
1.2

On the real line, split at zero. As R→∞, ∫−R0f and ∫0Rf tend separately to their two tail values. The same ε/2 estimate shows that their sum tends to the mixed value. Split-point invariance [L2] removes any dependence on zero.

L2
2.1

The converses fail, and a witness is available on this page rather than assumed. Take f(x)=1/x on [−1,1] with the interior singularity at 0. For every δ∈(0,1) the substitution x↦−x gives ∫−1−δx−1 dx=−∫δ1x−1 dx, so the symmetric truncations cancel exactly and the principal value exists and is 0. But ∫01x−p dx converges exactly when p<1 by [L4], so at p=1 the right-hand one-sided integral diverges, and by the same reflection so does the left-hand one. Hence the principal value can exist while neither one-sided improper integral converges, and the converse of the first claim fails. For the whole line a separate witness is needed, because [L5] admits only a function locally Riemann integrable on all of R and 1/x is not one: take f(x)=x, which is continuous and therefore locally integrable. For every R the substitution x↦−x gives ∫−R0x dx=−∫0Rx dx, so ∫−RRx dx=0 and the whole-line principal value is 0; but ∫0Rx dx=R2/2 is unbounded in R, so the tail ∫0∞x dx does not converge.

L4L5given∎

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