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19.6 Differentiation with Respect to a Parameter

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There is one other tool that can sometimes be used to evaluate anti-derivatives that works when certain convergence conditions hold. Suppose we know the anti-derivative of g(x,a) where g is some differentiable function of the parameter a, as well as a function of x. Then we can deduce that an anti-derivative of is the derivative with respect to a of an anti-derivative of g.
For example, we know that an anti-derivative of We may then deduce that an anti-derivative of , and we can take higher derivatives with respect to a here as well. This gives us a formula for an anti-derivative of a function of the form xk eax, as

If you cannot stand the idea of differentiating with respect to a, change a to y wherever it appears, and replace the derivative with respect to a by the partial derivative with respect to y. Then smile.