Definition:Inverse Cotangent/Arccotangent

Definition

Real Numbers

Arccotangent Function

From Shape of Cotangent Function, we have that $\cot x$ is continuous and strictly decreasing on the interval $\openint 0 \pi$.

From the same source, we also have that:

$\cot x \to + \infty$ as $x \to 0^+$

$\cot x \to - \infty$ as $x \to \pi^-$

Let $g: \openint 0 \pi \to \R$ be the restriction of $\cot x$ to $\openint 0 \pi$.

Thus from Inverse of Strictly Monotone Function, $\map g x$ admits an inverse function, which will be continuous and strictly decreasing on $\R$.

This function is called arccotangent of $x$ and is written $\arccot x$.

Thus:

The domain of $\arccot x$ is $\R$

The image of $\arccot x$ is $\openint 0 \pi$.

Complex Plane

The principal branch of the complex inverse cotangent function is defined as:

$\map \arccot z := \dfrac 1 {2 i} \, \map \Ln {\dfrac {z + i} {z - i} }$

where $\Ln$ denotes the principal branch of the complex natural logarithm.

Also denoted as

The symbol used to denote the arccotangent function is variously seen as:

• $\arccot$
• $\operatorname {acot}$
• $\operatorname {actn}$