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is used for the series, and, if it is convergent, to its sum. This convention is similar to that which is used for addition: a + b denotes the operation of adding a and b as well as the result of this addition, which is called the sum of a and b. Any series that is not convergent is said to be divergent or to diverge.
If a series is convergent but not absolutely convergent, it is called conditionally convergent. An example of a conditionally convergent series is the alternating harmonic series. Many standard tests for divergence and convergence, most notably including the ratio test and the root test, demonstrate absolute convergence.
While most of the tests deal with the convergence of infinite series, they can also be used to show the convergence or divergence of infinite products. This can be achieved using following theorem: Let { a n } n = 1 ∞ {\displaystyle \left\{a_{n}\right\}_{n=1}^{\infty }} be a sequence of positive numbers.
= + = + +, which has a sum of the natural logarithm of 2, while the sum of the absolute values of the terms is the harmonic series, = = + + + + +, which diverges per the divergence of the harmonic series, [28] so the alternating harmonic series is conditionally convergent.
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.
If the series is a conditionally convergent sum, then by Riemann series theorem, (,) = [, +]. Sierpiński proved that rearranging only the positive terms one can obtain a series converging to any prescribed value less than or equal to the sum of the original series, but larger values in general can not be attained.
The geometric series on the real line. In mathematics, the infinite series 1 / 2 + 1 / 4 + 1 / 8 + 1 / 16 + ··· is an elementary example of a geometric series that converges absolutely. The sum of the series is 1. In summation notation, this may be expressed as
The Cauchy convergence test is a method used to test infinite series for convergence. It relies on bounding sums of terms in the series. It relies on bounding sums of terms in the series. This convergence criterion is named after Augustin-Louis Cauchy who published it in his textbook Cours d'Analyse 1821.