Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2004 / ia / Paper 1 / 12F / iii / Solution

At $x=1/4$ the terms are $c_n$. Their decay to zero alone is insufficient for convergence. In factbecause the difference has numerator $n\ge 0$. Since $c_1=1/2$, induction gives $c_n\ge 1/(n+1)$. The comparison harmonic series diverges, so

At $x=-1/4$ the terms are $(-1{)}^n{c}_n$. Part (ii) gives positive decreasing magnitudes tending to zero, so the alternating series test applies. To see the convergence directly, let $S_N={\sum }_{n=1}^N(-1{)}^n{c}_n$. Thenwhile $S_{2k}\ge -c_1$, obtained by grouping $S_{2k}=-c_1+(c_2-c_3)+\cdots +(c_{2k-2}-c_{2k-1})+c_{2k}$. Thus the even partial sums have a finite limit. The odd partial sums differ from them by $-c_{2k+1}\to 0$, so the whole sequence of partial sums has the same limit. Absolute convergence would require convergence of $\sum c_n$, already disproved. Hence