3 LINE INTEGRALS AND CAUCHY’S THEOREM 5

(ii) The circle of radius 1 around z = 3.

(iii) The unit circle.
Solution: For parts (i) and (ii) there is no problem using the antiderivative log(z) because
these curves are contained in a simply connected region that doesn’t contain the origin.
(i) Z
1 √ π
dz = log(1 + i) − log(1) = log( 2) + i .
γ z 4

(ii) Since the beginning and end points are the same, we get

1
Z
dz = 0
γ z

(iii) We parametrize the unit circle by γ(θ) = eiθ with 0 ≤ θ ≤ 2π. We compute γ 0 (θ) = ieiθ .
So the integral becomes
Z 2π Z 2π
1 1 iθ
Z
dz = ie dt = i dt = 2πi.
γ z 0 eiθ 0

Notice that we could use log(z) if we were careful to let the argument increase by 2π as it
went around the origin once.
1
Z
Example 3.12. Compute 2
dz, where γ is the unit circle in two ways.
γ z
(i) Using the fundamental theorem.
(ii) Directly from the definition.
Solution: (i) Let f (z) = −1/z. Since f 0 (z) = 1/z 2 , the fundamental theorem says

1
Z Z
2
dz = f 0 (z) dz = f (endpoint) − f (start point) = 0.
γ z γ

It equals 0 because the start and endpoints are the same.

(ii) As usual, we parametrize the unit circle as γ(θ) = eiθ with 0 ≤ θ ≤ 2π. So, γ 0 (θ) = ieiθ
and the integral becomes
Z 2π Z 2π
1 1
Z 2π
iθ −iθ −iθ 
2
dz = ie dθ = ie dθ = −e  = 0.
γ z 0 e2iθ 0 0

3.6 Cauchy’s theorem

Cauchy’s theorem is analogous to Green’s theorem for curl free vector fields.
Theorem 3.13. (Cauchy’s theorem) Suppose A is a simply connected region, f (z) is
analytic on A and C is a simple closed curve in A. Then the following three things hold:
Z
(i) f (z) dz = 0
C
(i0 ) We can drop the requirement that C is simple in part (i).