Questions tagged [power-series]

Questions about the properties of functions of the form $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}a_n (x-c)^n$, where the $a_n$ are real or complex numbers, and $x$ is real or complex.

A series of the form $$\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_n (x-c)^n$$ is called a power series, and can be used to expand functions. The center $c$ is often $0$ and the radius of convergence $R$ is given by $R = \left(\limsup\limits_{n\to\infty}\sqrt[n]{|a_n|}\right)^{-1}$.

Power series for some common functions are: \begin{align} \frac{1}{1-x}&=\sum_{n=0}^\infty x^n\quad(|x|\lt1)\\\ \ln(1+x)&=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{(-1)^nx^{n+1}}{n+1}\quad(|x|\leq 1, x\neq -1)\\\ \arctan(x)&=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{(-1)^nx^{2n+1}}{2n+1}\quad(|x|\leq 1,x\neq \pm i)\\\ \tan(x)&=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{|B_{2n}|(4^n-1)4^n }{(2n)!}x^{2n-1}\quad(|x|< \pi/2)\\\ \sin(x)&=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{(-1)^n x^{2n+1}}{(2n+1)!}\\\ \cos(x)&=\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{(-1)^n x^{2n}}{(2n)!}\\\ e^x &= \sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{x^n}{n!}\\\ \end{align}

If convergence is not an issue or if you are working over a different domain than $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$, consider using the tag instead.

8489 questions
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Simple Power Series Expansion for Problems similar to $f = (1 + \epsilon \,x)^{1/\epsilon}$

I was flicking through a book on perturbation methods and saw a simple question asking the reader to expand the following expression for $f$ in a power series (up to the first 2 terms): $f = (1 + \epsilon \,x)^{1/\epsilon}$, where $\epsilon$ is a…
covertbob
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How to prove that the coefficients $a_n$ is 0 in power series for all even $n$

Let $f(x)$ be the sum function of the power series $$\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_nx^n$$ on $(-R,R)$ for $R>0$. If $f(x)+f(-x)=0$ for all $x∈(-R,R)$, prove that $a_n=0$ for all even $n$ Now What I have done is as follows:- As we know, $1/(1+x) =$…
vbm
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Radius of convergence of $\displaystyle{\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}} {(n!)^3 \over (3n)!}z^{3n} $.

Find the radius of convergence of $\displaystyle{\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}} {(n!)^3 \over (3n)!}z^{3n} \ ?$ I applied Cauchy-Hadamard test and the result is coming $0$ (radius of convergence). To obtain the limit I also used Cauchy's first limit…
Mini_me
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Power Series: Ratio test, but $x$ cancels out?!?

The question is: Determine the interval of convergence of the power series $$\sum_{n=1}^\infty\left(\frac{2n+1}{n^2+1}\right)(2x+1)^{12}$$ My attempt at an answer: $$u_n=\frac{(2n+1)}{(n^2+1)}(2x+1)^{12}$$ Applying the ratio…
Gineer
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SPPS for Sturm-Liouville problems proof (Weierstrass M-test)

Here http://arxiv.org/pdf/0811.4488v1 in Theorem 1 while prooving uniform convergence of $\sum_{k=0}^{\infty}\lambda^k{\widetilde{X}}^{(2k)}$ it's said that $|{\widetilde{X}}^{(2k)}| \leq (\max|ru_0^2|)^k \cdot (\max|\frac{1}{pu_0^2}|)^k \cdot…
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Find 100-th derivative of $1/(x^2+x+1)$ at x = 0

The hint is using power series. So I use Taylor's formula but still cannot reduce it. Any other hints?
pjpj
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Quotients of formal power series

In his Paper The Euler Characteristic of acyclic Categories Kazunori Noguchi gives the following definition: Let $f(t)$ be a formal power series over $\mathbb{Z}$. If there exists a rational function $g(t)/h(t)$, such that $f(t)=g(t)/h(t)$, then…
roman
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Functional expression for the sum of a certain power series

Does anybody recognize the following power series together with a functional expression for the sum: $$ \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} \left( \begin{array}{c} 2n \\ n \end{array} \right) x^n $$
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Compute the radius of convergence of the power series $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} n!x^n$

I need help with how to compute the radius of convergence of the power series $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} n!x^n$? I was thinking of using the ratio test but am unsure of how to go about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks
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Radius of convergence of $\sum_{n=0}^\infty n!x^{n^2}$

The question is to calculate the radius of convergence of $\sum\limits_{n=0}^\infty n!x^{n^2}$. I dont know how to calculate R.O.C for such type of questions involving $n^2$ as power of x. How do we do this? Any help appreciated.
Shobhit
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relationship betwen 2 power series with and without a factorial

given the 2 series $ f(x)= \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a(n) x^{n} $ amd $ g(x)= \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{a(n)}{n!} x^{n} $ is there a method to obtain the value of $ g(x) $ if we know the value of $ f(x) $ ???
Jose Garcia
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Common function with given power series?

Is there a common function with the power series $$ \dfrac{1}{2}x^2 + \dfrac{3}{8}x^4 + \dfrac{2}{7}x^6 + c_8x^8 + \ldots$$ where $c_8$ is in the 0.2 - 0.3 range? I'm getting a match for some numerical data and it is likely from a very common…
Jason S
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Want to show $e_1 (x) := \lim_{N\rightarrow \infty} \sum_{\mu=-N}^{N} \frac{1}{x+\mu} = \frac{1}{x} - \sum_{m=1}^{\infty} \gamma_m x^{2m-1}$

I want to prove \begin{align} e_1 (x) := \lim_{N\rightarrow \infty} \sum_{\mu=-N}^{N} \frac{1}{x+\mu} \end{align} for $\mu\neq 0$, $|x|<1$, \begin{align} e_1(x) = \frac{1}{x} - \sum_{m=1}^{\infty} \gamma_m x^{**2**m-1} \end{align} where $\gamma_m…
phy_math
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Help with Maclaurin Polynomial involving Error

Find the value of n so that the error obtained by approximating sin(x) by the nth degree Maclaurin polynomial Tn(x) on the interval [-0.5,0.5] will be less than 5 x 10^-6. I'm really stuck and don't even know where to start. Any help would be…
Bill M.
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Show that $f$ can not be expanded into a power series in a neighborhood of $0$.

Let $f(x)$ be defined by $$f(x)=\begin{cases}e^{-1/x^2},& \text{ if }x \neq 0,\\0, &\text{ if }x=0.\end{cases}$$ Show that $f$ can not be expanded into a power series in a neighborhood of $0$. We know that $f$ must be infinitely differentiable to…
anvo
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