Fourier cosine series of a triangular wave Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
The period-two extension of on is even. Its Fourier cosine series has and by integration by parts. This proves the displayed series, with only odd nonconstant harmonics. Continuity and piecewise smoothness give pointwise equality through the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem; the summable coefficient magnitudes also imply uniform convergence by the Weierstrass M-test. At , it gives .
Fourier series of a noninteger-frequency cosine Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Extend from with period . It is an even function, so all sine Fourier coefficients vanish. The product-to-sum identity gives
Indeed, integrate on and use . Thus
The coefficients are , so the series converges absolutely and uniformly. The Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem identifies it with the periodic function everywhere, including the endpoints because the two endpoint values agree. Substituting a noninteger rational frequency and a convenient yields explicit series sums. Integer frequencies require taking removable limits rather than substituting into a zero denominator.
Let and real . Extend with period . In the Fourier series convention , put . Direct integration gives
For example, the required antiderivatives are and . The Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem gives the exponential value away from the jumps and their midpoint at odd multiples of . For , the function is identically one, with and all other Fourier coefficients zero.
For , periodically extend and from with period . Their Fourier series are
and, away from odd integers,
The first identity follows by integration of on , using the antiderivative
For the second identity, integration by parts and show that its sine coefficient is times the first series' cosine coefficient. This avoids assuming that a Fourier series can always be differentiated term by term. The periodic hyperbolic cosine is continuous, so its series converges to it everywhere. The periodic hyperbolic sine has a jump discontinuity at each odd integer: the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem gives the average of its two limiting values, namely zero, there. Both identities hold in the sense of mean-square convergence, which suffices for Parseval's identity.
We use the Van der Corput sum-integral lemma. Put and . The Fourier series of the periodization of gives
where integer endpoints have half weight. This is the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem for a piecewise smooth, or more generally bounded-variation, periodic function. Here is , so the periodized function has bounded variation. Changing to the requested endpoint convention costs at most one.
Write . For , . Since is continuous and monotone, the reciprocal has bounded variation, and integration by parts in the Riemann-Stieltjes sense yields
The variation of the reciprocal is at most . Summing over gives , separating and using convergence of . For each endpoint, use
The symmetric partial sums of the first term are a constant multiple of , uniformly bounded in and ; this standard Fourier series bound follows by splitting at and applying Abel summation to the remaining sine sum. The second term is absolutely summable with bound . The same bound therefore holds for the whole sum of the integrals. Since is the ordinary integral,
No second derivative is required; monotonicity supplies the needed variation estimate.
For the Hardy-Littlewood approximation to the Riemann zeta function, take . On , and is monotone. The proved lemma says that the difference between the partial sum of and its integral over is uniformly in . Weighted Abel summation with the decreasing weight then makes the weighted difference , since its total variation on is . Initially for , the tail integral is . The bounded primitive of the discrepancy gives a locally uniformly convergent weighted discrepancy integral for every , continuing the identity to that region. Thus, away from the pole,
If the ordinary sum-integral comparison supplies the same estimate. At the formula is understood meromorphically. It approximates the Riemann zeta function by a finite Dirichlet polynomial, transfers exponential sum estimates to bounds in the critical strip, yields elementary near-one bounds for and its derivative, and supports estimates for the mean value of Dirichlet polynomials and numerical calculations.
The square wave alternates between a low interval of length five and a high interval of length five; its integral average is three. In the real Fourier series convention
integration over one period gives
and
Thus only odd harmonics occur:
The Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem makes the sum equal to the function at its continuity points and to the mean of its one-sided limits at a jump. Consequently the sum is 3 at each of , regardless of any separately assigned values of the original function at those endpoints.
Figure 1.
A periodic square wave and its Fourier approximations
. Original plot of the alternating low and high intervals and two partial Fourier sums. The jump values of the Fourier series are their midpoint; finite sums exhibit Gibbs oscillations. Details.
Evenness removes every sine coefficient. In the period-two Fourier cosine series convention , the constant coefficient is . Integration by parts gives
Thus the Fourier cosine series of a triangular wave is
The periodic function is continuous and piecewise smooth, so the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem gives its value at every point. The summable absolute coefficient bound also gives uniform convergence by the Weierstrass M-test.
The periodic ramp is an odd function, so . Integration by parts gives
Thus the Fourier series of a periodic sawtooth is
The periodic function is smooth at , so the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem permits evaluation there. Even-index terms vanish and odd-index sines alternate in sign, giving
Use the real Fourier series convention . The function is an even function, so . For noninteger real ,
For , the product-to-sum identity gives
Thus the Fourier series of a noninteger-frequency cosine is
Its Fourier coefficients are , giving absolute convergence and uniform convergence. The periodic function is continuous at its joins because the two endpoint cosine values coincide, so the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem gives this value at every point.
Putting gives
Evaluate at , where , and multiply by :
Comparing with the required form gives .
For period , use the Fourier series convention
The Fourier coefficients have prefactor on . First, . For the useful antiderivatives are
At the endpoints and , so
Consequently, on ,
The Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem justifies equality at every point of continuity of the periodic extension. At odd integers the extension has a jump discontinuity between and , so the series converges to their average , regardless of any assigned endpoint value. This is the case of the Fourier series of a periodically extended exponential.
Over one period, the graph rises linearly from the limiting point to , then drops to zero and stays there up to . Repeat this pattern every . The given open endpoints do not fix values at the jumps, but changing individual point values does not change any Fourier coefficient.
Only the negative half-interval contributes. The constant coefficient is
For , integration by parts gives
and
Consequently the requested Fourier series is
It equals the given function on each open continuity interval. By the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem, at it takes the jump midpoint , while at it takes zero because the periodic one-sided limits agree there.
Figure 1.
One period of the ramp-and-zero function, with the Fourier-series value at its jump
. Details.
With the usual real normalization, the Fourier series is
with Fourier coefficients
These formulas follow from Fourier orthogonality. Integrability is needed to define the coefficients, and periodicity alone does not guarantee pointwise equality with the series. For a piecewise smooth periodic function, the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem gives the average of the one-sided limits at a jump and the function value at a continuity point.
The periodic continuation is on each interval . Thus the plot repeats an increasing exponential segment on each of the three requested periods, jumping down from to at odd multiples of .
At , the left and right limits are and . The Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem therefore makes the Fourier series converge to
The actual half-open periodic definition has ; the Fourier value at the jump need not equal that assigned endpoint value.
Figure 1.
Three periods of the exponential continuation and the Fourier-series midpoint at a jump
. Details.
On the open interval, . It is an odd function there, so its constant and cosine coefficients vanish; assigned values at the endpoints do not affect these integrals. For its sine coefficient, integration by parts gives
Consequently
The endpoint qualification matters. The periodic has a jump discontinuity at every odd integer, with one-sided limits . By the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem, the Fourier series converges to their average, zero, there, not to the assigned value . The integration by parts argument also avoids assuming unrestricted termwise differentiation of the first series.
Evenness makes every sine coefficient zero. For the constant coefficient,
An integration by parts gives, for ,
The even coefficients vanish and the odd coefficients are . Therefore
The periodic function is continuous and piecewise smooth, so the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem identifies the Fourier series with at every point, including the endpoints. The absolute summability of the coefficients also gives uniform convergence.
Van der Corput sum-integral lemma Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-11-05
For a real phase with continuous monotone derivative and , the sum-integral discrepancy has the displayed uniform bound. Periodization and the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem express it as symmetric nonzero Fourier modes. Integration by parts gives endpoint terms and reciprocal-derivative variations. Monotonicity bounds their total variation by . Pairing the leading endpoint terms reduces them to the uniformly bounded sine series. The exclusion of integer nonzero frequencies is essential.