A theorem that determines the radius of convergence of a power series.
In
Augustin Louis Cauchy and Jacques Hadamard, describing the radius of convergence of a power series. It was published in 1821 by Cauchy,[1] but remained relatively unknown until Hadamard rediscovered it.[2] Hadamard's first publication of this result was in 1888;[3] he also included it as part of his 1892 Ph.D. thesis.[4]
Theorem for one complex variable
Consider the formal power series in one complex variable z of the form
where
Then the radius of convergence of f at the point a is given by
where lim sup denotes the
supremum
of the sequence values after the nth position. If the sequence values is unbounded so that the lim sup is ∞, then the power series does not converge near a, while if the lim sup is 0 then the radius of convergence is ∞, meaning that the series converges on the entire plane.
Proof
Without loss of generality assume that . We will show first that the power series converges for , and then that it diverges for .
First suppose . Let not be or
For any , there exists only a finite number of such that .
Now for all but a finite number of , so the series converges if . This proves the first part.
Conversely, for , for infinitely many , so if , we see that the series cannot converge because its nth term does not tend to 0.[5]
Theorem for several complex variables
Let be an n-dimensional vector of natural numbers () with , then converges with radius of convergence , if and only if
of the multidimensional power series