Consider the following two questions about functions that are integrable over .
I: Suppose is a continuous function such that Furthermore, suppose that the limits exist. Does it hold that
II: Suppose is a function such that Furthermore, suppose that is infinitely differentiable. Does it hold that
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For I, suppose that the relevant limits exist. Then the relevant limits are equal to 0 as otherwise it cannot be the case that ∫ − ∞ ∞ ∣ f ( x ) ∣ d x < ∞ . As a result, there exists R > 0 such that for ∣ x ∣ > R , ∣ f ( x ) ∣ < 1 . Now note that for ∣ x ∣ > R , ( f ( x ) ) 2 = ∣ f ( x ) ∣ 2 < ∣ f ( x ) ∣ , so ∫ R \ [ − R , R ] ( f ( x ) ) 2 d x ≤ ∫ R \ [ − R , R ] ∣ f ( x ) ∣ d x < ∞ . Furthermore, as f is continuous, f is bounded on the interval [ − R , R ] . As a result, ∫ − R R ( f ( x ) ) 2 d x ≤ 2 R ⋅ ( ∥ f ∥ [ − R , R ] ) 2 < ∞ . Hence ∫ − ∞ ∞ ( f ( x ) ) 2 d x = ∫ − R R ( f ( x ) ) 2 d x + ∫ R \ [ − R , R ] ( f ( x ) ) 2 d x < ∞ .
For II, a single counterexample is sufficient. For example, note that g 1 , g 2 : R → R , g 1 ( x ) = sin ( x 2 ) , g 2 ( x ) = cos ( x 2 ) are infinitely differentiable, while ∫ − ∞ ∞ sin ( x 2 ) d x = ∫ − ∞ ∞ cos ( x 2 ) d x = 2 π < ∞ , but ∫ − ∞ ∞ ( sin 2 ( x 2 ) + cos 2 ( x 2 ) ) d x = ∫ − ∞ ∞ 1 d x = ∞ , implying that at least one of the integrals ∫ − ∞ ∞ sin 2 ( x 2 ) d x and ∫ − ∞ ∞ cos 2 ( x 2 ) d x cannot be finite as both integrands are non-negative for any x ∈ R .