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In this note, we will only consider bounded sequences. The proofs below are long since I wrote every word to explain each step of the proofs. They can be much more concise. You should be able to shorten the proofs below by skipping redundant statements. As a matter of fact, we need to discuss subsequences rst to better understand the concepts of lim sup and lim inf. I was trying to explain without mentioning subsequences, but realized how hard it was to have you understood well.In these note, I will explain again with the help of subsequences. Given a sequence of {sn } , we dene a subsequence of {sn } by an innite subset of n=1 {sn }. Then we can turn the innite subset into a sequence as follows. Let A be an innite subset of {sn }. Then for any a A, there exists n N such that a = sn . We dene n1 = inf{n : sn A}. Having dened n1 , . . . , nk , we dene nk+1 = inf{n : sn A \ {sn1 , . . . , snk }}. Therefore, A = {sn1 , sn2 , . . . , snk , . . . }, and we denote the subsequence by {snk }. Notice also that n is the variable for the sequence {sn } and k is the variable for the subsequence {snk }. Again, we use {snk } to emphasize that this is a subsequence of a sequence {sn }. If we have {snkl }, then now you should know that this is a subsequence of the subsequence {snk }. Denition 1. A number x is a cluster point of a sequence {sn } if there exists a subsequence of {sn } converging to x. For instance, if a sequence {sn } is given by 1 , n then 1 and 1 are cluster points of the sequence {sn } because if nk = 2k for k N, then sn = (1)n + 1 2k converges to 1 and, on the other hand, if nk = 2k 1 for k N, then 1 snk = s2k1 = 1 + 2k 1 converges to 1, that is, there are subsequences converging to 1 and 1. Another example is 1 sn = (n mod 4) + . n What do you think the cluster points of this sequence are? 0, 1, 2, 3 are the cluster points of this sequence. Having dened a cluster point of a sequence, we now have another easier interpretation of lim sup sn and lim inf sn , whose denitions are given below. snk = s2k = 1 + 1
Denition 2. Given a sequence {sn }, lim sup sn = lim (sup{sn : n > N}),
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An easier interpretation of lim sup and lim inf is that lim sup sn = max{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}, and lim inf sn = min{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}. (2) In other words, lim sup sn is the largest number that is a limit of a subsequence of {sn } and lim inf sn is the smallest number that is a limit of a subsequence of {sn }. Even though I proved in class the theorem below. I will show the complete proof again. Theorem 1. s = lim sup sn if and only if s satises 1. > 0, N N such that sn < s + for n > N. 2. > 0, there are innitely many sn s such that s < sn . Proof. () Suppose that s = lim sup sn . By denition, > 0, M N such that s sup{sn : n > N} < for N > M. That is, s < sup{sn : n > N} < s + for N > M. This means that if we choose any N with N > M, sk sup{sn : n > N} < s + for k > N, (4) (3) (1)
that is, sk < s + for k > N, which is the rst condition. To show that the second condition is also true, we assume that there are only nitely many sn s such that s < sn and draw a contradiction. Now suppose that there are only nitely many sn s such that s < sn . Then there exists N1 N such that s sn if n > N1 . This means that sup{sn : n > N1 } s . For any N with N > N1 , we know that {sn : n > N} {sn : n > N1 } sup{sn : n > N} sup{sn : n > N1 }. Therefore if we choose any N with N > max(M, N1 ), then (3), (5), (6) imply that s < sup{sn : n > N} sup{sn : n > N1 } s . 2 (6) (5)
s < s is a contradiction. Hence, there are innitely many sn s such that s < sn . () Now we assume that a number s satises the two condition. Given > 0, the rs t condition says that there exists N N such that sn < s + for n > N. Therefore, sup{sn : n > K} sup{sn : n > N} s + for K > N. (7)
On the other hand, the second condition says that for any K > N, there exists l > K such that s < sl , which means that sup{sn : n > K} sl > s for K > N. Hence, (7) and (8) imply that s < sup{sn : n > K} < s + for K > N, that is, s sup{sn : n > K} < for K > N. That is, s = lim (sup{sn : n > N}) = lim sup sn .
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(8)
Theorem 2. s = lim inf sn if and only if s satises 1. > 0, N N such that s < sn for n > N. 2. > 0, there are innitely many sn s such that sn < s + . Proof. The proof is almost the same as Theorem 1. Now we will see (1) and (2). Theorem 3. s = lim sup sn if and only if s = max{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}. Proof. () Suppose that s = lim sup sn . We will now construct a subsequence of {sn } which converges to s as follows. Fix = 1/2. Then the rst condition of Theorem 1 says that for each k N, there exists Nk N such that if n > Nk , then sn < s + k = s + 1 . 2k
The second condition of Theorem 1 also says that for each k N, there are innitely many sn s such that sn > sk = s 21k . Now we will use mathematical induction on k to construct 1 a subsequence. For k = 1, we can choose n1 N such that n1 > N1 and sn1 > s = s 2 . 1 Then since n1 > N1 , we know that sn1 < s + = s + 2 . Having chosen n1 , . . . , nk , we will be able to choose nk+1 N such that nk+1 > max{N1 , . . . , Nk , Nk+1 , n1 , . . . , nk } and snk+1 > s k+1 = s 3 1 2k+1 .
1 Notice that since nk+1 > Nk+1 , snk+1 < s + k+1 = s + 2k+1 . Then we have a subsequence {snk }. Notice that n1 < n2 < n3 < . Now we need to prove that s = limk snk , which is almost obvious since for each k N,
sn k s <
1 . 2k
We just nished to prove that s is a cluster point of the sequence {sn } by nding a particular subsequence {snk }. To complete the proof, we need to prove that s is the largest. We will prove this by contradiction. Suppose that s < max{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}. Then there exists x > s such that x is a cluster point of {sn }, i.e., there exists a subsequence of {sn } converging to x. Let {snl } be the subsequence of {sn }. Then, for = (x s)/2, there exists N N such that if l > N, then |snl x| < = (x s)/2, which means that if l > N, then xs xs x < sn l < x + . 2 2 That is, for l > N, x+s < sn l , s<s+= 2 which means that there are innitely many sn s such that sn > s + . However, since s = lim sup sn , the rst condition of Theorem 1 says that there are only nitely many sn s such that sn > s + . This is a contradiction. Therefore, s = max{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}. () Now lets prove the other direction. Suppose that s = max{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}. Let {snk } be a subsequence converging to s. Then for each k N, snk {sn : n > nk 1} snk sup{sn : n > nk 1}. So s = lim snk lim (sup{sn : nk 1}) = lim sup sn .
k k
We will now prove that for any > 0, there is N N such that if n > N, then sn < s + . This will imply that sup{sn : n > N} < s + , i.e. for any > 0, lim sup sn < s + , which is equivalent to lim sup sn s. Then we nish the proof. Suppose now that for some > 0, there is no such N N. Then the set A = {sn : sn s + } is an innite set, which represents a subsequence of {sn }. That is, there is a subsequence {snk } such that snk s + for all k N. Now if we think of this subsequence as a new sequence {tk = snk }, then the previous proof () says that s + lim sup tk = max{x : x is a cluster point of {tk }}}, 4
which means that there exist a subsequence of the sequence {tk } converging to lim sup tk > s + . Notice that a subsequence of the sequence {tk } is a subsequence of a subsequence of the sequence {sn }, i.e., a subsequence of {sn }. Therefore, we can nd a subsequence of {sn } converging to a number greater than s + > s, i.e., there is a cluster point of {sn } bigger than s. This is a contradiction. Theorem 4. s = lim inf sn if and only if s = min{x : x is a cluster point of {sn }}. Proof. The proof is almost the same as that of Theorem 3.
HW(#4) additional problems : you should read this note rst. 1. Find lim sup sn and lim inf sn when the sequence {sn } is given by sn = sin and justify your answer. 2. Find all the cluster points of the above sequence {sn } if you can. 3. Prove Theorem 2 in this note. (Try to provide the best and the most concise proof.) 4. Prove Theorem 4 in this note. (Try to provide the best and the most concise proof.) 3n 4 for n N