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While studying for my exams, I came across this question and I'm trying to think about an intelligent way to solve it (the context is Lebesgue integration):

Let $f:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$, a continuous function (please see note below) on every bounded interval. Show that if $f$ and f' are integrable in $\mathbb{R}$ (meaning $\displaystyle \int_{\mathbb{R}} f(x) dx < \infty$ and $\displaystyle\int_{\mathbb{R}} f'(x) dx < \infty$), then:

$\lim_{x \to \infty} f(x) = \lim_{x \to -\infty} f(x) = 0$

and:

\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f'(x)dx = 0

Definitions:

I Don't know how it's called in English: for every $\epsilon > 0$ there is a $\delta > 0$ such that for every ${[x_i, y_i]_{i=1}^{n}}$, if $\sum (y_i - x_i) < \delta$, then $\sum |f(y_i) - f(x_i)| < \epsilon$

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    Ah, yes. Sorry for the noise.2012-02-24

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I presume you know that under these assumptions, the fundamental theorem of calculus (FTC) holds and we have f(b) - f(a) = \int_a^b f'(x) dx.

First try showing that $f(x)$ is Cauchy as $x \to \infty$: if $a,b$ are very large then $|f(b) - f(a)|$ must be very small. (Use FTC and the fact that f' is integrable.) This implies that $\lim_{x \to \infty} f(x)$ exists. Show that the integrability of $f$ means the limit must be 0. The argument as $x \to -\infty$ is identical.

Finally, note that \int_{-m}^m f'(x)dx = f(m) - f(-m) \to 0 as $m \to \infty$. Use dominated convergence to conclude \int_\mathbb{R} f'(x)dx =0.

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    @Hila: I edited to add this.2012-02-24