542 CHAPTER 12 • FOURJER SERJES AND THE LAPLACE TRANSFORM
which is commonly referred to simply as the Laplace transform off (t), which
is also defined as an integral:
C (! (t)) = F (s) = 1
00
f (t) e-•tdt, (^12 - 28)
where s = u + iw. If the integral in Equation (12-28) for the Laplace transform
exists for so = uo + iw, then values of u with u > uo imply that e-O't < e-O'ot
and so
from which it follows that F (s) exists for s = u + iw. Therefore, the Laplace
transform [, (! ( t)) is defined for all points s in the right half-plane Re ( s) > uo.
Another way to view the relationship between the Fourier transform and the
Laplace transform is to consider the function U (t) given by
U(t)={ f(t),
0,
for t 2:: 0;
fort< O.
Then the Fourier transform theory shows that
U (t) = _!_loo [loo U (t) e- iwtdt] eiwtdw,
27r -oo -oo
and, because the integrand U (t) is zero fort< 0, we can write this equation as
If we use the change of variable s = u + iw and dw = (ds/i), holding u > u 0
fixed, then the new limits of integration are from s = u -iw to s = u + iw. The
resulting equation is
f (t) = -^1 1"+ioo. [loo f (t) e-•tdt ] e•tds.
27r u-too 0
Therefore, the Laplace transform is
C (! (t)) = F (s) = 1
00
f (t) e-•tdt, wheres= u + iw,
and the inverse Laplace transform is
1 1 u+ioo
.c-^1 (F (s)) = f (t) = -
2
. F (s) e^81 ds.
11" u-ioo
(12-29)