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Power series are useful in mathematical analysis, where they arise as Taylor series of infinitely differentiable functions. In fact, Borel's theorem implies that every power series is the Taylor series of some smooth function. In many situations, the center c is equal to zero, for instance for Maclaurin series.
In mathematics, a generating function is a representation of an infinite sequence of numbers as the coefficients of a formal power series.Generating functions are often expressed in closed form (rather than as a series), by some expression involving operations on the formal series.
Two cases arise: The first case is theoretical: when you know all the coefficients then you take certain limits and find the precise radius of convergence.; The second case is practical: when you construct a power series solution of a difficult problem you typically will only know a finite number of terms in a power series, anywhere from a couple of terms to a hundred 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 .
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.
Probability generating functions are often employed for their succinct description of the sequence of probabilities Pr(X = i) in the probability mass function for a random variable X, and to make available the well-developed theory of power series with non-negative coefficients.
In mathematics, the exponential function can be characterized in many ways. This article presents some common characterizations, discusses why each makes sense, and proves that they are all equivalent. The exponential function occurs naturally in many branches of mathematics. Walter Rudin called it "the most important function in mathematics". [1]
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.