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Monotone Convergence Theorem

 

Motivation:

                        As we mentioned previously, sometimes it is difficult to “guess” the limit of a sequence and prove that it is convergent.  So, we hope that we can find some other clues to determine if a sequence converges or not.  Monotone Convergence Theorem is one of the methods to check the convergence of a sequence or series.

 

 

 

Definition ( Upper Bound and Lower Bound )

                    For a sequence  where cn  R ,  if  cn  M for all n  ,  then M is known as an upper bound of  the sequence .  On the other hand,  if there exists L such that  L  cn for all n, then L is known as a lower bound of the sequence.  Among all the upper bounds, the smallest one is known as least upper bound ( LUB ).  Similarly, among all the lower bound, the largest one is known as greatest lower bound.

 

                   A bounded sequence means there exist K such that

                                        | cn |  K for all n.

 

 

 

Theorem ( Monotone Convergence Theorem )

               For a sequence  and cn  R ,  if  cn  cn+1 and cn < M for all n  N,  then  converges.

 

       Proof:

                        cn < M for all n  M.  Thus,  there exists L such that L is the least upper bound.  In other words,  for any  > 0,  the following statement holds

 

1.      Between L and L+ ,  none of the  will fall into this interval because L is an upper bound.

2.      Between L-  and L,  there must exist at least a ck in this interval. Otherwise, L-  is an upper bound of   such that L-  < L.  But we know that L is the least upper bound. So,  that condition will never happen.

 

 

            Thus, we have

                                 L-  < ck < L+    .

            Furthermore,    ck  cn for  n  k,  and  cn < L+  for all n because (L+  ) is an upper bound

              L-  < cn < L+   for n  k .

 

           In other words,  for every  > 0 , there exists k such that

                                      | cn – L | <   for n  k

 

          That is how we define the limit of a sequence. So,   converges.

 

          Similarly, for a decreasing sequence, if it has a lower bound, then it converges.

 

 

Example:  Sk = , k  N  .  Prove that   converges.

       Proof:

                             Sk =  =

 

                     Thus,  Sk > 0  for every k  N.

                     Furthermore,   Sk > Sk+1  for every k  N.

 

                     The sequence has lower bound 0 and it is decreasing. From monotone convergence theorem, this sequence converges.

 

 

 

Theorem:    Every convergent sequence is bounded.

 

       Proof:

                          If        ,  that means

                          For every  > 0,  there exists a corresponding K such that

                                            | cn – c | <   for n > K

                             -  < cn – c <

                                  c -  < cn < c +   for  n > K

 

                         Let M = max { | c -  |, | c+  | } .

                               | cn | < M  for  n > K

 

                         Let B= max{ | c1 |, | c2 |, | c3 | , …, |cK | } .

                              So,      | cn | < B  for n  K .

 

                    Let U = max { M, B }.  We have

                                     | cn | < U  for every n .  In other words, it is bounded.

 

 

 

Theorem:

        If     and ,  then

          (1) 

          (2) 

          (3) 

          (4)     if  c  0 .

 

    Proof:

                         and .  That means

 

                       for every  > 0 , there exist K1  such that

                                        | bn – b | <   for  n < K1

 

                     and for every   > 0,  there exist K2 such that

                                        | cn – c | <  for n < K2

 

                      Let K=max( K1, K2 ) .

 

(1)            | bn – b | + | cn – c|  | (bn –b) + (cn – c) | = | (bn+cn) – (b+c) |

So, for n > K,

| (bn+cn) – (b+c) |  | bn – b | + | cn – c| <  +

 

In other words,  for every  >0,  we can properly choose  and  

such that   =  + ,  and there exists a corresponding K to let the following statement be true

 

| (bn+cn) – (b+c) | <  ,  for n > K

 

Thus,

              

 

(2)            | bn – b | + | cn – c|  | (bn – b) + ( c – cn ) | = | ( bn – cn) – (b-c) |

So, for n > K ,

                 | ( bn – cn) – (b-c) |    | bn – b | + | cn – c| <  +

 

In other words, for every  >0 , we can properly choose  and  such that  =  +  ,  and there exists a corresponding K such that

                | ( bn – cn) – (b-c) | <   for  n > K .

 

Thus,

                

 

 

              (3)     is a convergent sequence. So, there exists M such that

                                          | cn | < M

                     And

                      | bn cn – bc |  = | bncn – bcn + bcn – bc |

                                             | cn | | bn – b | + | b| | cn – c|

                                             M | bn – b | + |b| |cn – c|

       

         So, for n>K,  we have

                      | bn cn – bc |   M | bn – b | + |b| |cn – c |

                                            M  + |b|

 

         Hence,  for every  > 0 ,  we can properly choose  and  such that

          = M  + |b|  ,  and there exists a corresponding K such that

 

                          | bn cn – bc |  <   for n < K .

 

         In other words,    .

 

(4)    and  c  0 .  Thus, there only exist finitely many terms from {cn } such that  cn = 0.   So, we can exclude those finitely many terms from {cn} to define a new sequence { dn } such that

 

                                       dn =

             Then    .  ( It can be easily proved ).

 

       Use the result from (3), 

 

                                      

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