Question #3c377

2 Answers
Dec 30, 2017

#x^x# has no antiderivative in terms of elementary functions, i.e. #intx^x# cannot be expressed in terms ofelementary functions.

See here:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/141347/finding-int-xxdx

Explanation:

Dec 30, 2017

We seek:

# I = int \ x^x \ dx #

Noting that #x^x# can be written as #e^(lnx^x)# then we can can use the series expansion of #e^x#:

# e^x = 1+x+x^2/(2!) + (x^3)/(3!) + ... #

which converges #AA x in RR# to get:

# x^x = 1 + (lnx^x) + (lnx^x)^2/(2!) + (lnx^x)^3/(3!) + ... #
# \ \ \ = 1 + (xlnx) + (xlnx)^2/(2!) + (xlnx)^3/(3!) + ... #
# \ \ \ = 1 + xlnx + (x^2ln^2x)/(2!) + (x^3ln^3x)/(3!) + ... #

Which enables us to write:

# I = int \ sum_(r=1)^oo \ (x^rln^r x)/(r!) \ dx #
# \ \ = sum_(r=1)^oo \ int \ (x^rln^r x)/(r!) \ dx #

If we consider the function:

# F(x,n) = int_0^x \ (t^rln^r t)/(r!) \ dt #

Then we find that we can write:

# F(x,n) = (-1)^n (n+1)^(-(n+1))Gamma(n+1,(n+1)ln(1/x))#

Where:

# Gamma# is the incomplete Gamma function.

Which is about the best that can be done for the given integral.