Summation by parts
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In mathematics, summation by parts transforms the summation of products of sequences into other summations, often simplifying the computation or (especially) estimation of certain types of sums. The summation by parts formula is sometimes called Abel's lemma or Abel transformation.
Contents
Statement
Suppose and
are two sequences. Then,
Using the forward difference operator , it can be stated more succinctly as
Note that summation by parts is an analogue to the integration by parts formula,
Note also that although applications almost always deal with convergence of sequences, the statement is purely algebraic and will work in any field. It will also work when one sequence is in a vector space, and the other is in the relevant field of scalars.
Newton series
The formula is sometimes given in one of these - slightly different - forms
which represent a special case () of the more general rule
both result from iterated application of the initial formula. The auxiliary quantities are Newton series:
and
A remarkable, particular () result is the noteworthy identity
Here, is the binomial coefficient.
Method
For two given sequences and
, with
, one wants to study the sum of the following series:
If we define then for every
and
Finally
This process, called an Abel transformation, can be used to prove several criteria of convergence for .
Similarity with an integration by parts
The formula for an integration by parts is
Beside the boundary conditions, we notice that the first integral contains two multiplied functions, one which is integrated in the final integral ( becomes
) and one which is differentiated (
becomes
).
The process of the Abel transformation is similar, since one of the two initial sequences is summed ( becomes
) and the other one is differenced (
becomes
).
Applications
- It is used to prove Kronecker's lemma, which in turn, is used to prove a version of the strong law of large numbers under variance constraints.
- Summation by parts is frequently used to prove Abel's theorem.
- If
is a convergent series, and
a bounded monotone sequence, then
remains a convergent series.
The Cauchy criterion gives
where a is the limit of . As
is convergent,
is bounded independently of
, say by
. As
go to zero, so go the first two terms. The third term goes to zero by the Cauchy criterion for
. The remaining sum is bounded by
by the monotonicity of , and also goes to zero as
.
- Using the same proof as above, one shows that
- if the partial sums
form a bounded sequence independently of
;
- if
(so that the sum
goes to zero as
goes to infinity) ; and
- if
then is a convergent series.
In both cases, the sum of the series satisfies:
See also
- Convergent series
- Divergent series
- Integration by parts
- Cesàro summation
- Abel's theorem
- Abel sum formula