Expansions of Fermi and symmetrized Fermi integrals and applications in nuclear physics

A detailed study is undertaken, using various techniques, in deriving expansions of integrals containing the Fermi or the symmetrized Fermi distributions. The results are presented in a mathematically compact form and consist of generalizations and extensions of previously known expansions. The relevance of the results to quantities of interest in nuclear physics is recalled and particular attention is paid to the so-called exponentially small terms which may play an essential role in certain cases. (author)