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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 .
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.
The convergence criteria of the power series then apply, requiring ‖ ‖ to be sufficiently small under the appropriate matrix norm. For more general problems, which cannot be rewritten in such a way that the two matrices commute, the ordering of matrix products produced by repeated application of the Leibniz rule must be tracked.
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.
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.
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A formal power series can be loosely thought of as an object that is like a polynomial, but with infinitely many terms.Alternatively, for those familiar with power series (or Taylor series), one may think of a formal power series as a power series in which we ignore questions of convergence by not assuming that the variable X denotes any numerical value (not even an unknown value).