Ratio test

Template:Short description {{#invoke:sidebar|collapsible | class = plainlist | titlestyle = padding-bottom:0.25em; | pretitle = Part of a series of articles about | title = Calculus | image = $\int_{a}^{b} f^{'} (t) d t = f (b) - f (a)$ | listtitlestyle = text-align:center; | liststyle = border-top:1px solid #aaa;padding-top:0.15em;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa; | expanded = series | abovestyle = padding:0.15em 0.25em 0.3em;font-weight:normal; | above =

| list2name = differential | list2titlestyle = display:block;margin-top:0.65em; | list2title = Template:Bigger | list2 ={{#invoke:sidebar|sidebar|child=yes

 |contentclass=hlist
 | heading1 = Definitions
 | content1 =

 | heading2 = Concepts
 | content2 =

 | heading3 = Rules and identities
 | content3 =

}}

| list3name = integral | list3title = Template:Bigger | list3 ={{#invoke:sidebar|sidebar|child=yes

 |contentclass=hlist
 | content1 =

| heading2 = Definitions

 | content2 =

 | heading3 = Integration by
 | content3 =

}}

| list4name = series | list4title = Template:Bigger | list4 ={{#invoke:sidebar|sidebar|child=yes

 |contentclass=hlist
 | content1 =

 | heading2 = Convergence tests
 | content2 =

}}

| list5name = vector | list5title = Template:Bigger | list5 ={{#invoke:sidebar|sidebar|child=yes

 |contentclass=hlist
 | content1 =

 | heading2 = Theorems
 | content2 =

}}

| list6name = multivariable | list6title = Template:Bigger | list6 ={{#invoke:sidebar|sidebar|child=yes

 |contentclass=hlist
 | heading1 = Formalisms
 | content1 =

 | heading2 = Definitions
 | content2 =

}}

| list7name = advanced | list7title = Template:Bigger | list7 ={{#invoke:sidebar|sidebar|child=yes

 |contentclass=hlist
 | content1 =

}}

| list8name = specialized | list8title = Template:Bigger | list8 =

| list9name = miscellanea | list9title = Template:Bigger | list9 =

}}

In mathematics, the ratio test is a test (or "criterion") for the convergence of a series

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n},

where each term is a real or complex number and Template:Mvar is nonzero when Template:Mvar is large. The test was first published by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and is sometimes known as d'Alembert's ratio test or as the Cauchy ratio test.^[1]

The test

The usual form of the test makes use of the limit Template:NumBlk The ratio test states that:

if L < 1 then the series converges absolutely;
if L > 1 then the series diverges;
if L = 1 or the limit fails to exist, then the test is inconclusive, because there exist both convergent and divergent series that satisfy this case.

It is possible to make the ratio test applicable to certain cases where the limit L fails to exist, if limit superior and limit inferior are used. The test criteria can also be refined so that the test is sometimes conclusive even when L = 1. More specifically, let

R = \lim \sup | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} |

r = \lim \inf | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} |

.

Then the ratio test states that:^[2]^[3]

if R < 1, the series converges absolutely;
if r > 1, the series diverges; or equivalently if $| \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | > 1$ for all large n (regardless of the value of r), the series also diverges; this is because $| a_{n} |$ is nonzero and increasing and hence Template:Mvar does not approach zero;
the test is otherwise inconclusive.

If the limit L in (Template:EquationNote) exists, we must have L = R = r. So the original ratio test is a weaker version of the refined one.

Examples

Convergent because L < 1

Consider the series

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{e^{n}}

Applying the ratio test, one computes the limit

L = \lim_{n \to \infty} | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | = \lim_{n \to \infty} | \frac{\frac{n + 1}{e^{n + 1}}}{\frac{n}{e^{n}}} | = \frac{1}{e} < 1 .

Since this limit is less than 1, the series converges.

Divergent because L > 1

Consider the series

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{e^{n}}{n} .

Putting this into the ratio test:

L = \lim_{n \to \infty} | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | = \lim_{n \to \infty} | \frac{\frac{e^{n + 1}}{n + 1}}{\frac{e^{n}}{n}} | = e > 1 .

Thus the series diverges.

Inconclusive because L = 1

Consider the three series

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} 1,

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^{2}},

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{(- 1)^{n + 1}}{n} .

The first series (1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + ⋯) diverges, the second (the one central to the Basel problem) converges absolutely and the third (the alternating harmonic series) converges conditionally. However, the term-by-term magnitude ratios $| \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} |$ of the three series are $1,$ $\frac{n^{2}}{(n + 1)^{2}}$ and $\frac{n}{n + 1}$ . So, in all three, the limit $\lim_{n \to \infty} | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} |$ is equal to 1. This illustrates that when L = 1, the series may converge or diverge: the ratio test is inconclusive. In such cases, more refined tests are required to determine convergence or divergence.

Proof

Below is a proof of the validity of the generalized ratio test.

Suppose that $r = \underset{n \to \infty}{lim inf} | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | > 1$ . We also suppose that $(a_{n})$ has infinite non-zero members, otherwise the series is just a finite sum hence it converges. Then there exists some $ℓ \in (1; r)$ such that there exists a natural number $n_{0} \geq 2$ satisfying $a_{n_{0}} \neq 0$ and $| \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | > ℓ$ for all $n \geq n_{0}$ , because if no such $ℓ$ exists then there exists arbitrarily large $n$ satisfying $| \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | < ℓ$ for every $ℓ \in (1; r)$ , then we can find a subsequence ${(a_{n_{k}})}_{k = 1}^{\infty}$ satisfying $\underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} | \frac{a_{n_{k} + 1}}{a_{n_{k}}} | \leq ℓ < r$ , but this contradicts the fact that $r$ is the limit inferior of $| \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} |$ as $n \to \infty$ , implying the existence of $ℓ$ . Then we notice that for $n \geq n_{0} + 1$ , $| a_{n} | > ℓ | a_{n - 1} | > ℓ^{2} | a_{n - 2} | > . . . > ℓ^{n - n_{0}} | a_{n_{0}} |$ . Notice that $ℓ > 1$ so $ℓ^{n} \to \infty$ as $n \to \infty$ and $| a_{n_{0}} | > 0$ , this implies $(a_{n})$ diverges so the series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n}$ diverges by the n-th term test.
Now suppose $R = \underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} | \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} | < 1$ . Similar to the above case, we may find a natural number $n_{1}$ and a $c \in (R; 1)$ such that $| a_{n} | \leq c^{n - n_{1}} | a_{n_{1}} |$ for $n \geq n_{1}$ . Then $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} | a_{n} | = \sum_{k = 1}^{n_{1} - 1} | a_{k} | + \sum_{n = n_{1}}^{\infty} | a_{n} | \leq \sum_{k = 1}^{n_{1} - 1} | a_{k} | + \sum_{n = n_{1}}^{\infty} c^{n - n_{1}} | a_{n_{1}} | = \sum_{k = 1}^{n_{1} - 1} | a_{k} | + | a_{n_{1}} | \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} c^{n} .$ The series $\sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} c^{n}$ is the geometric series with common ratio $c \in (0; 1)$ , hence $\sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} c^{n} = \frac{1}{1 - c}$ which is finite. The sum $\sum_{k = 1}^{n_{1} - 1} | a_{k} |$ is a finite sum and hence it is bounded, this implies the series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} | a_{n} |$ converges by the monotone convergence theorem and the series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n}$ converges by the absolute convergence test.
When the limit $| \frac{a_{n + 1}}{a_{n}} |$ exists and equals to $L$ then $r = R = L$ , this gives the original ratio test.

Extensions for L = 1

As seen in the previous example, the ratio test may be inconclusive when the limit of the ratio is 1. Extensions to the ratio test, however, sometimes allow one to deal with this case.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

In all the tests below one assumes that Σa_n is a sum with positive a_n. These tests also may be applied to any series with a finite number of negative terms. Any such series may be written as:

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n} = \sum_{n = 1}^{N} a_{n} + \sum_{n = N + 1}^{\infty} a_{n}

where a_N is the highest-indexed negative term. The first expression on the right is a partial sum which will be finite, and so the convergence of the entire series will be determined by the convergence properties of the second expression on the right, which may be re-indexed to form a series of all positive terms beginning at n=1.

Each test defines a test parameter (ρ_n) which specifies the behavior of that parameter needed to establish convergence or divergence. For each test, a weaker form of the test exists which will instead place restrictions upon lim_n->∞ρ_n.

All of the tests have regions in which they fail to describe the convergence properties of Σa_n. In fact, no convergence test can fully describe the convergence properties of the series.^[4]^[10] This is because if Σa_n is convergent, a second convergent series Σb_n can be found which converges more slowly: i.e., it has the property that lim_n->∞ (b_n/a_n) = ∞. Furthermore, if Σa_n is divergent, a second divergent series Σb_n can be found which diverges more slowly: i.e., it has the property that lim_n->∞ (b_n/a_n) = 0. Convergence tests essentially use the comparison test on some particular family of a_n, and fail for sequences which converge or diverge more slowly.

De Morgan hierarchy

Augustus De Morgan proposed a hierarchy of ratio-type tests^[4]^[9]

The ratio test parameters ( $ρ_{n}$ ) below all generally involve terms of the form $D_{n} a_{n} / a_{n + 1} - D_{n + 1}$ . This term may be multiplied by $a_{n + 1} / a_{n}$ to yield $D_{n} - D_{n + 1} a_{n + 1} / a_{n}$ . This term can replace the former term in the definition of the test parameters and the conclusions drawn will remain the same. Accordingly, there will be no distinction drawn between references which use one or the other form of the test parameter.

1. d'Alembert's ratio test

The first test in the De Morgan hierarchy is the ratio test as described above.

2. Raabe's test

This extension is due to Joseph Ludwig Raabe. Define:

ρ_{n} \equiv n (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1)

(and some extra terms, see Ali, Blackburn, Feld, Duris (none), Duris2)Template:Clarify

The series will:^[7]^[10]^[9]

Converge when there exists a c>1 such that $ρ_{n} \geq c$ for all n>N.
Diverge when $ρ_{n} \leq 1$ for all n>N.
Otherwise, the test is inconclusive.

For the limit version,^[12] the series will:

Converge if $ρ = \lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} > 1$ (this includes the case ρ = ∞)
Diverge if $\lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} < 1$ .
If ρ = 1, the test is inconclusive.

When the above limit does not exist, it may be possible to use limits superior and inferior.^[4] The series will:

Converge if $\underset{n \to \infty}{lim inf} ρ_{n} > 1$
Diverge if $\underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} ρ_{n} < 1$
Otherwise, the test is inconclusive.

Proof of Raabe's test

Defining $ρ_{n} \equiv n (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1)$ , we need not assume the limit exists; if $lim sup ρ_{n} < 1$ , then $\sum a_{n}$ diverges, while if $lim inf ρ_{n} > 1$ the sum converges.

The proof proceeds essentially by comparison with $\sum 1 / n^{R}$ . Suppose first that $lim sup ρ_{n} < 1$ . Of course if $lim sup ρ_{n} < 0$ then $a_{n + 1} \geq a_{n}$ for large $n$ , so the sum diverges; assume then that $0 \leq lim sup ρ_{n} < 1$ . There exists $R < 1$ such that $ρ_{n} \leq R$ for all $n \geq N$ , which is to say that $a_{n} / a_{n + 1} \leq (1 + \frac{R}{n}) \leq e^{R / n}$ . Thus $a_{n + 1} \geq a_{n} e^{- R / n}$ , which implies that $a_{n + 1} \geq a_{N} e^{- R (1 / N + \dots + 1 / n)} \geq c a_{N} e^{- R \log (n)} = c a_{N} / n^{R}$ for $n \geq N$ ; since $R < 1$ this shows that $\sum a_{n}$ diverges.

The proof of the other half is entirely analogous, with most of the inequalities simply reversed. We need a preliminary inequality to use in place of the simple $1 + t < e^{t}$ that was used above: Fix $R$ and $N$ . Note that $\log (1 + \frac{R}{n}) = \frac{R}{n} + O (\frac{1}{n^{2}})$ . So $\log ((1 + \frac{R}{N}) \dots (1 + \frac{R}{n})) = R (\frac{1}{N} + \dots + \frac{1}{n}) + O (1) = R \log (n) + O (1)$ ; hence $(1 + \frac{R}{N}) \dots (1 + \frac{R}{n}) \geq c n^{R}$ .

Suppose now that $lim inf ρ_{n} > 1$ . Arguing as in the first paragraph, using the inequality established in the previous paragraph, we see that there exists $R > 1$ such that $a_{n + 1} \leq c a_{N} n^{- R}$ for $n \geq N$ ; since $R > 1$ this shows that $\sum a_{n}$ converges.

3. Bertrand's test

This extension is due to Joseph Bertrand and Augustus De Morgan.

Defining:

ρ_{n} \equiv n \ln n (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1) - \ln n

Bertrand's test^[4]^[10] asserts that the series will:

Converge when there exists a c>1 such that $ρ_{n} \geq c$ for all n>N.
Diverge when $ρ_{n} \leq 1$ for all n>N.
Otherwise, the test is inconclusive.

For the limit version, the series will:

Converge if $ρ = \lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} > 1$ (this includes the case ρ = ∞)
Diverge if $\lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} < 1$ .
If ρ = 1, the test is inconclusive.

When the above limit does not exist, it may be possible to use limits superior and inferior.^[4]^[9]^[13] The series will:

Converge if $lim inf ρ_{n} > 1$
Diverge if $lim sup ρ_{n} < 1$
Otherwise, the test is inconclusive.

4. Extended Bertrand's test

This extension probably appeared at the first time by Margaret Martin in 1941.^[14] A short proof based on Kummer's test and without technical assumptions (such as existence of the limits, for example) was provided by Vyacheslav Abramov in 2019.^[15]

Let $K \geq 1$ be an integer, and let $\ln_{(K)} (x)$ denote the $K$ th iterate of natural logarithm, i.e. $\ln_{(1)} (x) = \ln (x)$ and for any $2 \leq k \leq K$ , $\ln_{(k)} (x) = \ln_{(k - 1)} (\ln (x))$ .

Suppose that the ratio $a_{n} / a_{n + 1}$ , when $n$ is large, can be presented in the form

\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} = 1 + \frac{1}{n} + \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{K - 1} \frac{1}{\prod_{k = 1}^{i} \ln_{(k)} (n)} + \frac{ρ_{n}}{n \prod_{k = 1}^{K} \ln_{(k)} (n)}, K \geq 1 .

(The empty sum is assumed to be 0. With $K = 1$ , the test reduces to Bertrand's test.)

The value $ρ_{n}$ can be presented explicitly in the form

ρ_{n} = n \prod_{k = 1}^{K} \ln_{(k)} (n) (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1) - \sum_{j = 1}^{K} \prod_{k = 1}^{j} \ln_{(K - k + 1)} (n) .

Extended Bertrand's test asserts that the series

Converge when there exists a $c > 1$ such that $ρ_{n} \geq c$ for all $n > N$ .
Diverge when $ρ_{n} \leq 1$ for all $n > N$ .
Otherwise, the test is inconclusive.

For the limit version, the series

Converge if $ρ = \lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} > 1$ (this includes the case $ρ = \infty$ )
Diverge if $\lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} < 1$ .
If $ρ = 1$ , the test is inconclusive.

When the above limit does not exist, it may be possible to use limits superior and inferior. The series

Converge if $lim inf ρ_{n} > 1$
Diverge if $lim sup ρ_{n} < 1$
Otherwise, the test is inconclusive.

For applications of Extended Bertrand's test see birth–death process.

5. Gauss's test

This extension is due to Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Assuming a_n > 0 and r > 1, if a bounded sequence C_n can be found such that for all n:^[5]^[7]^[9]^[10]

\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} = 1 + \frac{ρ}{n} + \frac{C_{n}}{n^{r}}

then the series will:

Converge if $ρ > 1$
Diverge if $ρ \leq 1$

6. Kummer's test

This extension is due to Ernst Kummer.

Let ζ_n be an auxiliary sequence of positive constants. Define

ρ_{n} \equiv (ζ_{n} \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - ζ_{n + 1})

Kummer's test states that the series will:^[5]^[6]^[10]^[11]

Converge if there exists a $c > 0$ such that $ρ_{n} \geq c$ for all n>N. (Note this is not the same as saying $ρ_{n} > 0$ )
Diverge if $ρ_{n} \leq 0$ for all n>N and $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} 1 / ζ_{n}$ diverges.

For the limit version, the series will:^[16]^[7]^[9]

Converge if $\lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} > 0$ (this includes the case ρ = ∞)
Diverge if $\lim_{n \to \infty} ρ_{n} < 0$ and $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} 1 / ζ_{n}$ diverges.
Otherwise the test is inconclusive

When the above limit does not exist, it may be possible to use limits superior and inferior.^[4] The series will

Converge if $\underset{n \to \infty}{lim inf} ρ_{n} > 0$
Diverge if $\underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} ρ_{n} < 0$ and $\sum 1 / ζ_{n}$ diverges.

Special cases

All of the tests in De Morgan's hierarchy except Gauss's test can easily be seen as special cases of Kummer's test:^[4]

For the ratio test, let ζ_n=1. Then:

ρ_{Kummer} = (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1) = 1 / ρ_{Ratio} - 1

For Raabe's test, let ζ_n=n. Then:

ρ_{Kummer} = (n \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - (n + 1)) = ρ_{Raabe} - 1

For Bertrand's test, let ζ_n=n ln(n). Then:

ρ_{Kummer} = n \ln (n) (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}}) - (n + 1) \ln (n + 1)

Using

\ln (n + 1) = \ln (n) + \ln (1 + 1 / n)

and approximating

\ln (1 + 1 / n) \to 1 / n

for large n, which is negligible compared to the other terms,

ρ_{Kummer}

may be written:

ρ_{Kummer} = n \ln (n) (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1) - \ln (n) - 1 = ρ_{Bertrand} - 1

For Extended Bertrand's test, let $ζ_{n} = n \prod_{k = 1}^{K} \ln_{(k)} (n) .$ From the Taylor series expansion for large $n$ we arrive at the approximation

\ln_{(k)} (n + 1) = \ln_{(k)} (n) + \frac{1}{n \prod_{j = 1}^{k - 1} \ln_{(j)} (n)} + O (\frac{1}{n^{2}}),

where the empty product is assumed to be 1. Then,

ρ_{Kummer} = n \prod_{k = 1}^{K} \ln_{(k)} (n) \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - (n + 1) [\prod_{k = 1}^{K} (\ln_{(k)} (n) + \frac{1}{n \prod_{j = 1}^{k - 1} \ln_{(j)} (n)})] + o (1) = n \prod_{k = 1}^{K} \ln_{(k)} (n) (\frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - 1) - \sum_{j = 1}^{K} \prod_{k = 1}^{j} \ln_{(K - k + 1)} (n) - 1 + o (1) .

Hence,

ρ_{Kummer} = ρ_{Extended Bertrand} - 1 .

Note that for these four tests, the higher they are in the De Morgan hierarchy, the more slowly the $1 / ζ_{n}$ series diverges.

Proof of Kummer's test

If $ρ_{n} > 0$ then fix a positive number $0 < δ < ρ_{n}$ . There exists a natural number $N$ such that for every $n > N,$

δ \leq ζ_{n} \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - ζ_{n + 1} .

Since $a_{n + 1} > 0$ , for every $n > N,$

0 \leq δ a_{n + 1} \leq ζ_{n} a_{n} - ζ_{n + 1} a_{n + 1} .

In particular $ζ_{n + 1} a_{n + 1} \leq ζ_{n} a_{n}$ for all $n \geq N$ which means that starting from the index $N$ the sequence $ζ_{n} a_{n} > 0$ is monotonically decreasing and positive which in particular implies that it is bounded below by 0. Therefore, the limit

\lim_{n \to \infty} ζ_{n} a_{n} = L

exists.

This implies that the positive telescoping series

\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} (ζ_{n} a_{n} - ζ_{n + 1} a_{n + 1})

is convergent,

and since for all $n > N,$

δ a_{n + 1} \leq ζ_{n} a_{n} - ζ_{n + 1} a_{n + 1}

by the direct comparison test for positive series, the series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} δ a_{n + 1}$ is convergent.

On the other hand, if $ρ < 0$ , then there is an N such that $ζ_{n} a_{n}$ is increasing for $n > N$ . In particular, there exists an $ϵ > 0$ for which $ζ_{n} a_{n} > ϵ$ for all $n > N$ , and so $\sum_{n} a_{n} = \sum_{n} \frac{a_{n} ζ_{n}}{ζ_{n}}$ diverges by comparison with $\sum_{n} \frac{ϵ}{ζ_{n}}$ .

Tong's modification of Kummer's test

A new version of Kummer's test was established by Tong.^[6] See also ^[8]^[11]^[17] for further discussions and new proofs. The provided modification of Kummer's theorem characterizes all positive series, and the convergence or divergence can be formulated in the form of two necessary and sufficient conditions, one for convergence and another for divergence.

Series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n}$ converges if and only if there exists a positive sequence $ζ_{n}$ , $n = 1, 2, \dots$ , such that $ζ_{n} \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - ζ_{n + 1} \geq c > 0 .$

Series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n}$ diverges if and only if there exists a positive sequence $ζ_{n}$ , $n = 1, 2, \dots$ , such that $ζ_{n} \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - ζ_{n + 1} \leq 0,$ and $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{ζ_{n}} = \infty .$

The first of these statements can be simplified as follows:^[18]

Series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n}$ converges if and only if there exists a positive sequence $ζ_{n}$ , $n = 1, 2, \dots$ , such that $ζ_{n} \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - ζ_{n + 1} = 1 .$

The second statement can be simplified similarly:

Series $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n}$ diverges if and only if there exists a positive sequence $ζ_{n}$ , $n = 1, 2, \dots$ , such that $ζ_{n} \frac{a_{n}}{a_{n + 1}} - ζ_{n + 1} = 0,$ and $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{ζ_{n}} = \infty .$

However, it becomes useless, since the condition $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{ζ_{n}} = \infty$ in this case reduces to the original claim $\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} a_{n} = \infty .$

Frink's ratio test

Another ratio test that can be set in the framework of Kummer's theorem was presented by Orrin Frink^[19] 1948.

Suppose $a_{n}$ is a sequence in $ℂ ∖ {0}$ ,

If $\underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} (\frac{| a_{n + 1} |}{| a_{n} |})^{n} < \frac{1}{e}$ , then the series $\sum_{n} a_{n}$ converges absolutely.
If there is $N \in ℕ$ such that $(\frac{| a_{n + 1} |}{| a_{n} |})^{n} \geq \frac{1}{e}$ for all $n \geq N$ , then $\sum_{n} | a_{n} |$ diverges.

This result reduces to a comparison of $\sum_{n} | a_{n} |$ with a power series $\sum_{n} n^{- p}$ , and can be seen to be related to Raabe's test.^[20]

Ali's second ratio test

A more refined ratio test is the second ratio test:^[7]^[9] For $a_{n} > 0$ define:

L_{0} \equiv \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{a_{2 n}}{a_{n}}

L_{1} \equiv \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{a_{2 n + 1}}{a_{n}}

L \equiv \max (L_{0}, L_{1})

By the second ratio test, the series will:

Converge if $L < \frac{1}{2}$
Diverge if $L > \frac{1}{2}$
If $L = \frac{1}{2}$ then the test is inconclusive.

If the above limits do not exist, it may be possible to use the limits superior and inferior. Define:

$L_{0} \equiv \underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} \frac{a_{2 n}}{a_{n}}$		$L_{1} \equiv \underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} \frac{a_{2 n + 1}}{a_{n}}$
$ℓ_{0} \equiv \underset{n \to \infty}{lim inf} \frac{a_{2 n}}{a_{n}}$		$ℓ_{1} \equiv \underset{n \to \infty}{lim inf} \frac{a_{2 n + 1}}{a_{n}}$
$L \equiv \max (L_{0}, L_{1})$		$ℓ \equiv \min (ℓ_{0}, ℓ_{1})$

Then the series will:

Converge if $L < \frac{1}{2}$
Diverge if $ℓ > \frac{1}{2}$
If $ℓ \leq \frac{1}{2} \leq L$ then the test is inconclusive.

Ali's mth ratio test

This test is a direct extension of the second ratio test.^[7]^[9] For $0 \leq k \leq m - 1,$ and positive $a_{n}$ define:

L_{k} \equiv \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{a_{m n + k}}{a_{n}}

L \equiv \max (L_{0}, L_{1}, \dots, L_{m - 1})

By the $m$ th ratio test, the series will:

Converge if $L < \frac{1}{m}$
Diverge if $L > \frac{1}{m}$
If $L = \frac{1}{m}$ then the test is inconclusive.

If the above limits do not exist, it may be possible to use the limits superior and inferior. For $0 \leq k \leq m - 1$ define:

$L_{k} \equiv \underset{n \to \infty}{lim sup} \frac{a_{m n + k}}{a_{n}}$
$ℓ_{k} \equiv \underset{n \to \infty}{lim inf} \frac{a_{m n + k}}{a_{n}}$
$L \equiv \max (L_{0}, L_{1}, \dots, L_{m - 1})$		$ℓ \equiv \min (ℓ_{0}, ℓ_{1}, \dots, ℓ_{m - 1})$

Then the series will:

Converge if $L < \frac{1}{m}$
Diverge if $ℓ > \frac{1}{m}$
If $ℓ \leq \frac{1}{m} \leq L$ , then the test is inconclusive.

Ali--Deutsche Cohen φ-ratio test

This test is an extension of the $m$ th ratio test.^[21]

Assume that the sequence $a_{n}$ is a positive decreasing sequence.

Let $φ : ℤ^{+} \to ℤ^{+}$ be such that $\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{n}{φ (n)}$ exists. Denote $α = \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{n}{φ (n)}$ , and assume $0 < α < 1$ .

Assume also that $\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{a_{φ (n)}}{a_{n}} = L .$

Then the series will:

Converge if $L < α$
Diverge if $L > α$
If $L = α$ , then the test is inconclusive.

Footnotes

Template:Reflist

References

Template:Calculus topics

it:Criteri di convergenza#Criterio del rapporto (o di d'Alembert)

↑ Template:Mathworld
↑ Template:Harvnb
↑ Template:Harvnb
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 ^4.6 ^4.7 Template:Cite book
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Template:Cite book
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 Template:Cite journal
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 ^7.3 ^7.4 ^7.5 Template:Cite journal
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 Template:Cite journal
↑ ^9.0 ^9.1 ^9.2 ^9.3 ^9.4 ^9.5 ^9.6 ^9.7 Template:Cite web
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 ^10.2 ^10.3 ^10.4 ^10.5 Template:Cite thesis
↑ ^11.0 ^11.1 ^11.2 Template:Cite arXiv
↑ Template:Mathworld
↑ Template:Mathworld
↑ Template:Cite journal
↑ Template:Cite journal
↑ Template:Mathworld
↑ Template:Cite arXiv
↑ Template:Cite journal
↑ Template:Cite journal
↑ Template:Cite journal
↑ Template:Cite journal

[:0-1] Template:Mathworld

[2] Template:Harvnb

[3] Template:Harvnb

[Bromwich1908-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 ^4.6 ^4.7 Template:Cite book

[Knopp-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Template:Cite book

[Tong1994-6] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 Template:Cite journal

[Ali2008-7] 7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 ^7.3 ^7.4 ^7.5 Template:Cite journal

[Samelson1995-8] 8.0 ^8.1 Template:Cite journal

[Blackburn2012-9] 9.0 ^9.1 ^9.2 ^9.3 ^9.4 ^9.5 ^9.6 ^9.7 Template:Cite web

[Duris2009-10] 10.0 ^10.1 ^10.2 ^10.3 ^10.4 ^10.5 Template:Cite thesis

[Duris2018-11] 11.0 ^11.1 ^11.2 Template:Cite arXiv

[12] Template:Mathworld

[13] Template:Mathworld

[Mar1941-14] Template:Cite journal

[Abr2008-15] Template:Cite journal

[16] Template:Mathworld

[Abramov2021-17] Template:Cite arXiv

[Abramov2022-18] Template:Cite journal

[Frink1948-19] Template:Cite journal

[Stark1949-20] Template:Cite journal

[21] Template:Cite journal

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

Ratio test

Contents

The test

Examples

Convergent because L < 1

Divergent because L > 1

Inconclusive because L = 1

Proof

Extensions for L = 1

De Morgan hierarchy

1. d'Alembert's ratio test

2. Raabe's test

Proof of Raabe's test

3. Bertrand's test

4. Extended Bertrand's test

5. Gauss's test

6. Kummer's test

Special cases

Proof of Kummer's test

Tong's modification of Kummer's test

Frink's ratio test

Ali's second ratio test

Ali's mth ratio test

Ali--Deutsche Cohen φ-ratio test

See also

Footnotes

References

Navigation menu

Ratio test

The test

Examples

Convergent because L < 1

Divergent because L > 1

Inconclusive because L = 1

Proof

Extensions for L = 1

De Morgan hierarchy

1. d'Alembert's ratio test

2. Raabe's test

Proof of Raabe's test

3. Bertrand's test

4. Extended Bertrand's test

5. Gauss's test

6. Kummer's test

Special cases

Proof of Kummer's test

Tong's modification of Kummer's test

Frink's ratio test

Ali's second ratio test

Ali's mth ratio test

Ali--Deutsche Cohen φ-ratio test

See also

Footnotes

References

Navigation menu

Search