An integral that counts the zeros of a function

Abstract: Given a real function

f

on an interval

[a, b]

satisfying mild regularity conditions, we determine the number of zeros of

f

by evaluating a certain integral. The integrand depends on

f, f^{'}

and

f^{″}

. In particular, by approximating the integral with the trapezoidal rule on a fine enough grid, we can compute the number of zeros of

f

by evaluating finitely many values of

f, f^{'}

and

f^{″}

. A variant of the integral even allows to determine the number of the zeros broken down by their multiplicity.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(6)

This page was built for publication: An integral that counts the zeros of a function