Questions tagged [divergent-series]

Questions on whether certain series diverge, and how to deal with divergent series using summation methods such as Ramanujan summation and others.

When a series of real or, more generally, complex numbers diverges, it is still possible, sometimes, to give a meaning to its sum. For instance, given a series $\displaystyle\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_n$, if the series $\displaystyle\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_nx^n$ converges for each $x\in[0,1)$ and if furthermore the limit$$\lim_{x\to1}\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_nx^n$$exists, it is natural to say that $\displaystyle\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_n$ is this limit. Besides, if the series $\displaystyle\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_n$ actually converges, then the two sums are the same.

1714 questions
39
votes
2 answers

Does the sum $\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{\tan n}{n^2}$ converge?

Does the sum $$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{\tan n}{n^2}$$ converge?
lsr314
  • 15,806
26
votes
8 answers

Sum of all natural numbers is 0?

A fairly well-known (and perplexing) fact is that the sum of all natural numbers is given the value -1/12, at least in certain contexts. Quite often, a "proof" is given which involves abusing divergent and oscillating series, and the numbers seem to…
12
votes
1 answer

Is there an extension of the integers where the "sum of natural numbers" is rigorous?

There's the well-known claim that $$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} n = -\frac{1}{12} \tag 1$$ Of course in this form, using the usual interpretation of the infinite sum as limit of finite sums, it's wrong, as the sum on the left hand side diverges. The $-1/12$…
celtschk
  • 43,384
11
votes
2 answers

Divergent Series Intuition

Why is it that divergent series make sense? Specifically, by basic calculus a sum such as $1 - 1 + 1 ...$ describes a divergent series (where divergent := non-convergent sequence of partial sums) but, as described in these videos, one can use Euler,…
bolbteppa
  • 4,389
11
votes
4 answers

Can every divergent series be regularized?

The following words reflect my understanding(an elementary one) of the divergent series. We first define an infinite series as follows: $L = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}a_n \Leftrightarrow L = \lim_{k \rightarrow \infty} S_k.$ Where $S_k$ is the partial sum…
Omar Nagib
  • 1,258
9
votes
3 answers

Can divergent series be useful?

As explained by Terence Tao on his blog for example, it is possible to give a value to some divergent series using analytic continuation. For instance, that allows identities like $$\sum\limits_{n \geq 1} 1 = - \frac{1}{2}, \ \ \sum\limits_{n \geq…
Seirios
  • 33,157
9
votes
1 answer

Does the series converge

We know that all series of the following form diverge: \begin{equation} S_k = \sum_{n=\left\lceil \mathrm{e}^k \right\rceil}^\infty \frac{1}{n (\ln n) (\ln \ln n)\dots(\ln^k n)} \end{equation} where the notation $\ln^k$ is function composition.…
7
votes
1 answer

Is the series $\sum \limits_{n=1}^{\infty} \sin(n^2)$ convergent?

Does the series $\sum \limits_{n=1}^{\infty} \sin(n^2)$ converge? I think I've tried everything, I have no more ideas.
Mark
  • 107
6
votes
1 answer

does this "strange" series converge?

Let $A$ be the set of natural numbers which do not contain the digit $9$ in decimal representation (e.g. $2013\in A$ but $2019\notin A$). Does $\sum_{a\in A}{\frac{1}{a}}$ converges or not? I don't know how to approach this problem. I am kind of…
Jason Ng
  • 365
5
votes
3 answers

Can the sum $1+2+3+\cdots$ be something else than $-1/12$?

I've seen methods to calculate this sum - also in questions on this site. But it seems it is a matter of how you want to regularize the problem. Are there summation methods which could give a different, finite result for this sum? EDIT: One answer…
Gere
  • 2,117
4
votes
2 answers

How to determine divergent series from inductive defintion

Consider the following definition by induction: $$ \begin{align} f(0)&=1\\ f(1)&=1/2\\ f(n)&=\frac{f(n-2)}{f(n-1)+f(n-2)} \end{align}$$ I can see that this defines a series that oscillates between 0.4 and 0.6 (which is good, because these are…
gsbardo
  • 41
  • 2
4
votes
1 answer

Divergent series which is Abel summable but not Euler summable

It is said that: Abel summation and Euler summation are not comparable. We were able to find examples of divergent series which are Euler summable but not Abel summable, for instance $$ 1-2+4-8+16-\dots$$ However, we couldn't find any example of…
user455909
3
votes
2 answers

How to determine the nature of a series

Consider the following series :$$ \sum\limits_{n = 1}^\infty {\frac{{\sin (n)\cos (\frac{1}{n})}}{{\sqrt {n + 2} }}} $$ We want to determine if the series diverges or not. I tried so far using the small-angle approximation for the cosine, but it…
3
votes
2 answers

Does the series $S=\sum\limits_{n=1}^\infty a_n\log(a_n)$ with $\sum\limits_{n=1}^\infty a_n=1$ and $a_n\in(0,1]$ always converge?

Given the following sum: \begin{align} S=\sum\limits_{n=1}^\infty a_n\log(a_n) \end{align} And this "contract": \begin{align} \sum\limits_{n=1}^\infty a_n&=1 \\ a_n&\in(0,1] \end{align} Does the sum $S$ always converge? I tried a few coefficients…
Kevin Meier
  • 1,535
3
votes
3 answers

Why does $a_n=\sqrt{n} + \sin(n)$ diverge?

I know the sequence does not converge to a point, so it must diverge. It is bounded on the bottom by 0 and there is no upper bound. So does it diverge because it is not bounded or because it oscillates? Thanks.
Learner
  • 691
  • 1
  • 4
  • 19
1
2 3 4 5 6