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Prove that if a positive series $\sum_{\nu =1}^\infty a_\nu$ is convergent and the sequence $(\nu a_\nu)_{\nu =1}^\infty$ is decreasing, then $\lim_{\nu\to\infty}(\nu\log\nu)a_\nu=0$.

I've been trying to prove this for days, but so far I've only managed to prove that if the limit exists, it is equal to 0.

Could someone give me a hint?

  • apanpapan3, thanks for commenting, but why did you delete your comment in https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2867643 ? – BCLC Jul 31 '18 at 05:44

3 Answers3

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Suppose $na_n\log n$ does not tend to $0$. There exists $n_k$ increasing to $\infty $ such that $a_{{n_k}} n_k \log n_k \geq a$ for all $k$ for some $a>0$. Further, replacing $\{n_k\}$ be a subequence if necessary we may assume that $$ \log (n_{k+1}-1) -\log n_k >\frac 1 2 \log n_{k+1}$$ for all $k$. Now $$\sum_n a_n=\sum_k \sum_{n_k \leq n <n_{k+1}} \frac 1 n (na_n)\geq \sum_k \sum_{n=n_{k}}^{n_{k+1}-1} \frac 1 n (n_{k+1}a_{n_{k+1}})>\sum_k ({\log (n_{k+1}-1) -\log n_k}) (n_{k+1}a_{n_{k+1}}) $$. The general term of this series exceeds $\frac a 2$. This makes $\sum a_n$ divergent.

Adayah
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  • If you estimate the sum $\displaystyle \sum_{n=n_k}^{n_{k+1}-1} \frac{1}{n}$ by an integral the usual way, you get $\log(n_{k+1}) - \log(n_k)$ which looks nicer, although yours is also correct. – Adayah Jul 10 '18 at 08:49
  • I mentioned in my answer that this can be ensured by going to a subsequence. We can make $n_{k+1}$ 'much larger' than $n_k$ by going to a subsequence. – Kavi Rama Murthy Jul 10 '18 at 10:06
  • @apanpapan3 Explicitly, $\frac {\log (n-1) -\log n_k} {\log n} \to 1$ so we can make this greater than $\frac 1 2$. – Kavi Rama Murthy Jul 10 '18 at 10:09
  • @apanpapan3 What equivalence are you talking about? – Kavi Rama Murthy Jul 10 '18 at 10:36
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First notice that $(a_n)_n$ is also decreasing:

$$na_n \ge (n+1)a_{n+1} \implies a_n \ge \frac{n+1}{n} a_{n+1} \ge a_{n+1}$$

Since $\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n$ converges, by Cauchy condensation test $\sum_{n=1}^\infty 2^na_{2^n}$ also converges.

Also, $(2^na_{2^n})_n$ is decreasing because it is a subsequence of $(na_n)_n$.

Now use this lemma:

Let $(x_n)_n$ be a decreasing sequence of positive numbers such that $\sum_{n=1}^\infty x_n$ converges. Then $\lim_{n\to\infty} nx_n = 0$.

We conclude that $\lim_{n\to\infty} n2^na_{2^n} = 0$.

By scaling, we can assume that $\log = \log_2$.

We have $\log n \le 2\lfloor \log n\rfloor$ and $n \ge 2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor}$ so $na_n \le 2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor} a_{2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor}}$. Therefore

$$0 \le (n\log n) a_n \le \log n\cdot 2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor} a_{2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor}}\le 2\lfloor \log n\rfloor\cdot 2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor} a_{2^{\lfloor \log n\rfloor}}$$

The right hand side converges to $0$ because it is a constant times a subsequence of $(n2^na_{2^n})_n$ with some repeated terms because $n\mapsto \lfloor \log n\rfloor$ is not strictly increasing.

The squeeze theorem gives $\lim_{n\to\infty} (n\log n) a_n = 0$.

mechanodroid
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  • How do you know that $a_n$ is decreasing so that we can use the Cauchy condensation test? 2. The inequality $n a_n \leqslant 2^n a_{2^n}$ should go the other way.
  • – Adayah Jul 10 '18 at 07:51
  • @Adayah You are right, of course. I tried to fix the issues, can you have a look now? – mechanodroid Jul 10 '18 at 23:26
  • $\mbox{}$Seems fine. – Adayah Jul 11 '18 at 15:15