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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 .
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).
Define e x as the value of the infinite series = =! = + +! +! +! + (Here n! denotes the factorial of n. One proof that e is irrational uses a special case of this formula.) Inverse of logarithm integral.
The exponential function (in blue), and the sum of the first n + 1 terms of its power series (in red) where ! is the factorial of n (the product of the n first positive integers). This series is absolutely convergent for every per the ratio test. So, the derivative of the sum can be computed by term-by-term derivation, and this shows that the ...
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.
Algebraic operations can be done readily on the power series representation; for instance, Euler's formula follows from Taylor series expansions for trigonometric and exponential functions. This result is of fundamental importance in such fields as harmonic analysis.
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.
This is for instance the case in the Lorentzian [26] construction of a Lie group representation from a Lie algebra representation. Existence can be seen as follows. We consider the ring = [[,]] of all non-commuting formal power series with real coefficients in the non-commuting variables X and Y.