Boundary convergence of a power series Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
Knowing the radius of convergence does not settle convergence on its boundary. The three power series
all have radius one, but behave differently on .
Figure 1.
The same radius of convergence permits three different behaviours on the unit circle
. Green denotes absolute convergence, orange conditional convergence, and red divergence. All three series converge absolutely in the open unit disk. On its boundary, the geometric series diverges everywhere; the series converges conditionally except at ; the series converges absolutely everywhere. Details.
For the geometric series, boundary terms all have complex modulus one, violating the term test for divergence. For the second series, absolute values give the divergent harmonic series at every boundary point. At the series itself is harmonic and diverges. At any other point on the unit circle, its geometric partial sums obey
The Dirichlet test with the decreasing sequence therefore gives conditional convergence. In particular, gives the negative of the alternating harmonic series, with sum . For the third series, the convergent p-series bounds the absolute values at every boundary point, giving absolute convergence by the comparison test for series.
At , the rational function is well defined and equals , yet its geometric series diverges there. A formula for a function and a particular series representation can have different domains. Likewise, applying termwise differentiation of a power series preserves the radius but need not preserve the boundary convergence.
Counting measure Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-14
Counting measure makes integration into summation by giving every measurable singleton unit weight. On any measurable space , it is the measure defined by
Thus , a finite set has its usual cardinality, and every infinite set has the same value in the extended real number line. In particular, countably infinite sets and uncountable sets are not distinguished by their counting measure. Taking to be the power set makes every subset measurable; restricting the same rule to a smaller sigma-algebra is also allowed. [ref]
Why is this a countably additive measure? For pairwise disjoint measurable sets ,
If the union is finite, only finitely many are nonempty, and finite cardinality adds. If the union is infinite, either one is infinite or infinitely many are nonempty; in both cases the nonnegative series on the right is infinite. For example, and have counting measures and , and their union has counting measure . The singletons for positive natural numbers give the infinite case: .
With the power set as sigma-algebra, counting measure is a finite measure exactly when is finite, and a sigma-finite measure exactly when is at most countable. For the latter assertion, enumerate by measurable singletons; conversely, every finite-measure set is finite, and a countable union of finite sets is countable. Specifying the sigma-algebra matters: if and , counting measure is not a sigma-finite measure, since the only measurable finite-measure set is the empty set.
For a finite or countably infinite set equipped with its power set, every nonnegative function is a measurable function, and
The supremum allows an infinite result and avoids choosing an order for the terms. On a finite set, expand as a simple function using singleton indicator functions. On a countably infinite set, enumerate the points and apply the monotone convergence theorem to finite truncations. Real or complex functions are integrable functions for counting measure exactly when ; then their integral equals the absolutely convergent sum. This is the discrete counterpart of Lebesgue integration, developed further in series as a Lebesgue integral against counting measure. [ref]
For example, on the positive natural numbers has counting measure integral one, by the geometric series. The alternating harmonic series has a finite ordered sum but is not the integral of an integrable function for counting measure: its positive and negative parts both have infinite sums. Absolute convergence is what makes the finite integral independent of enumeration. In particular, the Lp spaces for counting measure on are the l-p sequence spaces, with their sums replacing continuous integrals.
Compare three measures on the same Borel sigma-algebra of the real numbers: counting measure , Dirac measure , and Lebesgue measure .
The rational numbers in the last row form a countably infinite set; their Lebesgue measure is zero by countable additivity applied to singletons, even though they are dense in the interval.
Figure 1.
The same Borel sets have different sizes under counting measure, Dirac measure, and Lebesgue measure
. Original analytical comparison on the real numbers, with the selected point marked in orange. Drawings show the finite sets and the interval; the rational numbers are named symbolically because finitely many plotted points cannot depict that infinite dense set. Green zero entries mark the null sets for each column's measure. Details.
These are different answers to different questions: counting measure asks how many points occur, Dirac measure asks whether the selected point occurs, and Lebesgue measure asks how much length occurs. A null set therefore depends on its measure. For counting measure, the only null set is the empty set, so equality almost everywhere is equality everywhere. For , a measurable set is a null set exactly when it misses ; for Lebesgue measure, even the infinite set is a null set. Integrating an indicator function recovers each table entry through . This lets the same Lebesgue integral framework handle point counts, point evaluation, and geometric length.
Convergence at implies that the terms form a bounded sequence: for some . If and , then
Comparison with the convergent geometric series proves absolute convergence. The case is vacuous.
The radius of convergence is the number such that a power series converges absolutely for and diverges for , with boundary behavior considered separately.
Take
Then is the convergent alternating harmonic series, whereas is the divergent harmonic series. Thus converges at a point of modulus one and diverges at another point of modulus one. It follows that
The alternating series test says that if , , and , then converges.
To prove it, let be the partial sums. The even sums satisfy
so is increasing. The odd sums satisfy
so is decreasing. Also , so both are bounded and converge. Their difference is , hence their limits agree and the whole sequence converges.
Taking proves convergence of the alternating harmonic series. Its even partial sums lie below its limit , while its odd partial sums lie above it. Since
and
we obtain
Let . Integrate the finite geometric series identity over :
The remainder has absolute value at most . Hence the partial sums converge, with
This proves both convergence and the value of the alternating harmonic series without substituting an endpoint into an unproved infinite power series. Its convergence is conditional because the corresponding harmonic series of absolute values diverges.
For the geometric ratio has modulus less than one, and
Every summand is nonnegative. The monotone convergence theorem therefore permits integration of the sum:
The integral is finite because its integrand is bounded above by , whose integral is one. The displayed paired sums are the even partial sums of the alternating harmonic series; its odd partial sums differ by a term tending to zero. Thus the required equality holds with the usual series ordering. One can additionally evaluate it by :
Grouping into nonnegative pairs supplies the justified interchange; absolute convergence of the ungrouped integrated alternating series is not needed and would be false.