The tail is a monotone sequence bounded below by zero. The bounded monotone sequence theorem therefore gives . Taking the limit of a sequence in yields , so . The reciprocal rule from part (a) permits passage to the limit of a sequence in the recurrence relation:
Multiplication by gives
This proves existence of the positive square root without assuming that existence when constructing the sequence.
Assume first that the original nonnegative series converges to . Its partial sums increase to . Write for the partial sums of the rearrangement of a series. Since is an injection, the indices are distinct, so
Thus is an increasing bounded sequence, and the bounded monotone sequence theorem gives .
For any fixed , surjectivity of gives
For , nonnegativity implies . Taking limits of sequences first in and then in gives . Hence .
Conversely, is a bijection, and the original series is the rearrangement of a series of defined by . The same argument proves its convergence whenever converges. Both series converge together, and their sums are equal.
For a nonempty set , a supremum is a real number such that for every , and every upper bound of satisfies . Equivalently, is an upper bound and, for every , some satisfies . By completeness of the real numbers, it exists whenever is nonempty and bounded above.
An increasing monotone sequence satisfies for every ; a bounded sequence satisfies for some finite and every . Put . Given , the defining property of the supremum supplies with . For every , monotonicity gives
This is exactly the definition of convergent sequence, so the bounded monotone sequence theorem gives .
Choose with . Every tail of a sequence is nonempty and bounded, so its supremum exists and lies in . Removing one term cannot increase a supremum, hence . The bounded monotone sequence theorem, applied to , proves
Thus is the limit superior of .
For , eventually , and then . Only finitely many indices can satisfy . If only finitely many satisfied , some entire tail of a sequence would have . Its supremum would also be at most , contradicting .
Inductively choose so late that and . There are infinitely many choices for the latter inequality, so both requirements can be met. Then , proving . This constructs a subsequence attaining the limit superior.
A series converges when its partial sums have a finite limit of a sequence.
The comparison test says that if eventually and converges, then converges. Indeed, the partial sums of the nonnegative terms are increasing, and are bounded above by a fixed initial contribution plus the sum of the comparison series. The bounded monotone sequence theorem proves their convergence. Finite initial terms do not affect convergence. Applying this result to also proves absolute convergence whenever eventually with .
The cobweb plot uses the curve and the diagonal . From a point on the diagonal, a vertical step to the curve computes the next iterate; a horizontal step returns its value to the diagonal.
For , , so . Thus a start below gives a strictly increasing sequence bounded above by . For the inequalities reverse to , giving a strictly decreasing sequence bounded below by . Both types of staircase approach the same intersection.
The bounded monotone sequence theorem proves existence of a limit, and continuity then makes it a nonnegative fixed point. Part (i) gives
This proves the global convergence of a square-root iteration; the graph below illustrates both cases without relying on a finite numerical sample as proof.
Figure 1.
Iteration staircases approaching the positive fixed point from below and from above
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