Handout on Inverse Trigonometric Functions

We define the multi-valued w = cos1 z function by the relation cos w = z. Hence

eiw + eiw = 2z e2iw 2zeiw + 1 = 0 eiw = z + (z 2 1)1/2 .
Thus,
cos1 z = w = i log[z + (z 2 1)1/2 ].
Similarly, we can see that sin1 z = i log[iz + (1 z 2 )1/2 ].
For w = cosh1 z we get e2w 2zew + 1 = 0 which leads to cosh1 z = log[z + (z 2 1)1/2 ].
Now, consider
w = cos1 z = i log[z + (z 2 1)1/2 ].
Let (z 2 1)1/2 = w0 . Then (z + w0 )(z w0 ) = z 2 w02 = z 2 z 2 + 1 = 1. Using the fact that
arg(z1 z2 ) = arg z1 + arg z2 we get
Arg (z w0 ) = Arg (z + w0 ) + 2ki,
for some integer k. Now,
w = i log[z + (z 2 1)1/2 ] = i[ln |z w0 | + iArg (z w0 ) + 2ni],

n = 0, 1, 2, . . . .

Let
w1 = i[ln |z + w0 | + iArg (z + w0 )],
then w1 cos1 z and the other values are w1 + 2n and w1 + 2n, n = 0, 1, 2, . . . .