Numerical Contour Integration

Abstract

We present a straightforward implementation of contour integration by setting options for Integrate and NIntegrate, taking advantage of powerful results in complex analysis. As such, this article can be viewed as documentation to perform numerical contour integration with the existing built-in tools. We provide examples of how this method can be used when integrating analytically and numerically some commonly used distributions, such as Wightman functions in quantum field theory. We also provide an approximating technique when time-ordering is involved, a commonly encountered scenario in quantum field theory for computing second-order terms in Dyson series expansion and Feynman propagators. We believe our implementation will be useful for more general calculations involving advanced or retarded Green’s functions, propagators, kernels and so on.