Abel's theorem
RemarkAs an immediate consequence of this theorem, if $z$ is any nonzero complex number for which the series
$$\sum _{k=0}^{\infty }a_{k}z^{k}$$
converges, then it follows that
$$\lim _{t\to 1^{-}}G(tz)=\sum _{k=0}^{\infty }a_{k}z^{k}$$
in which the limit is taken from below.
The theorem can also be generalized to account for sums which diverge to infinity. If
$$\sum _{k=0}^{\infty }a_{k}=\infty $$
then
$$\lim _{z\to 1^{-}}G(z)\to \infty .$$
However, if the series is only known to be divergent, but for reasons other than diverging to infinity, then the claim of the theorem may fail: take, for example, the power series for
$${\frac {1}{1+z}}.$$
At $z=1$ the series is equal to $1-1+1-1+\cdots$, but $\frac {1}{1+1}=\frac {1}{2}$.
We also remark the theorem holds for radii of convergence other than $R=1$: let
$$G(x)=\sum _{k=0}^{\infty }a_{k}x^{k}$$
be a power series with radius of convergence $R$, and suppose the series converges at $x=R$. Then $G(x)$ is continuous from the left at $x=R$, that is,
$$\lim _{x\to R^{-}}G(x)=G(R).$$
Applications
The utility of Abel's theorem is that it allows us to find the limit of a power series as its argument (that is, $z$) approaches $1$ from below, even in cases where the radius of convergence, $R,$ of the power series is equal to $1$ and we cannot be sure whether the limit should be finite or not. See for example, the binomial series. Abel's theorem allows us to evaluate many series in closed form. For example, when
$$a_{k}={\frac {(-1)^{k}}{k+1}},$$
we obtain
$$G_{a}(z)={\frac {\ln(1+z)}{z}},\qquad 0<z<1,$$
by integrating the uniformly convergent geometric power series term by term on $[-z,0]$; thus the series
$$\sum _{k=0}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{k}}{k+1}}$$
converges to $\ln(2)$ by Abel's theorem. Similarly,
$$\sum _{k=0}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{k}}{2k+1}}$$
converges to ${\displaystyle \arctan(1)={\tfrac {\pi }{4}}.}$
$G_{a}(z)$ is called the generating function of the sequence $a.$ Abel's theorem is frequently useful in dealing with generating functions of real-valued and non-negative sequences, such as probability-generating functions. In particular, it is useful in the theory of Galton–Watson processes. |