TITLE: Evaluate: $\int{\frac{x^{5}-x}{x^{8}+1}}\:\mathrm dx.$
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: Evaluate: $$\int{\frac{x^{5}-x}{x^{8}+1}\:\mathrm dx}.$$

I am unable to see a decent starting point for this integral, there are no radicals so trigonometric substitution isn't helpful; there is no nice partial fraction decomposition to simplify the integrand, integration by parts doesn't help to simplify it much, and I cannot see any factorization or useful substitution to use.
Can anyone help shed some light on this integral?
Thanks in advance!

REPLY [14 votes]: These integrals are often wrapped up nicely by substitutions of the form:
$$u=x^a\pm\frac{1}{x^a}$$
where $a$ is chosen appropriately.
A little bit of playing around leads to the following:
$$\int\frac{x^{5}-x}{x^{8}+1}dx=\int\frac{x^{3}\left(x^{2}-\frac{1}{x^{2}}\right)dx}{x^{4}\left(x^{4}+\frac{1}{x^{4}}\right)}=\int\frac{\left(x^{2}-\frac{1}{x^{2}}\right)dx}{x\left[\left(x^{2}+\frac{1}{x^{2}}\right)^{2}-2\right]}$$
Now let
$$u=x^{2}+\frac{1}{x^{2}}$$
$$du=2\left(x-\frac{1}{x^{3}}\right)dx=2\frac{1}{x}\left(x^{2}-\frac{1}{x^{2}}\right)dx$$
Hence
$$2I=\int\frac{du}{u^{2}-2}=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}}\int\frac{du}{u-\sqrt{2}}-\int\frac{du}{u+\sqrt{2}}=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}}\ln\left|\frac{u-\sqrt{2}}{u+\sqrt{2}}\right|$$
$$I=\frac{1}{4\sqrt{2}}\ln\left|\frac{x^{4}-\sqrt{2}x^{2}+1}{x^{4}+\sqrt{2}x^{2}+1}\right|$$