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In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form = = + + + … where represents the coefficient of the nth term and c is a constant called the center of the series. Power series are useful in mathematical analysis , where they arise as Taylor series of infinitely differentiable functions .
The Cauchy product may apply to infinite series [1] [2] or power series. [3] [4] When people apply it to finite sequences [5] or finite series, that can be seen merely as a particular case of a product of series with a finite number of non-zero coefficients (see discrete convolution). Convergence issues are discussed in the next section.
Unlike an ordinary series, the formal power series is not required to converge: in fact, the generating function is not actually regarded as a function, and the "variable" remains an indeterminate. One can generalize to formal power series in more than one indeterminate, to encode information about infinite multi-dimensional arrays of numbers.
An infinite series of any rational function of can be reduced to a finite series of polygamma functions, by use of partial fraction decomposition, [8] as explained here. This fact can also be applied to finite series of rational functions, allowing the result to be computed in constant time even when the series contains a large number of terms.
Formal power series are used in combinatorics to describe and study sequences that are otherwise difficult to handle, for example, using the method of generating functions. The Hilbert–Poincaré series is a formal power series used to study graded algebras.
In mathematics, the power series method is used to seek a power series solution to certain differential equations. In general, such a solution assumes a power series with unknown coefficients, then substitutes that solution into the differential equation to find a recurrence relation for the coefficients.
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(Similar examples may be found in the article of Wei. [21]) This simple example illustrates that the various versions of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula, which give expressions for Z in terms of iterated Lie-brackets of X and Y, describe formal power series whose convergence is not guaranteed.