In mathematics, uniform absolute-convergence is a type of convergence for series of functions. Like absolute-convergence, it has the useful property that it is preserved when the order of summation is changed.
Motivation A convergent series of numbers can often be reordered in such a way that the new series diverges. This is not possible for series of nonnegative numbers, however, so the notion of absolute-convergence precludes this phenomenon. When dealing with uniformly convergent series of functions, the same phenomenon occurs: the series can potentially be reordered into a non-uniformly convergent series, or a series which does not even converge pointwise. This is impossible for series of nonnegative functions, so the notion of uniform absolute-convergence can be used to rule out these possibilities.
Definition Given a set X and functions f n : X → C {\displaystyle f_{n}:X\to \mathbb {C} } (or to any normed vector space), the series
∑ n = 0 ∞ f n ( x ) {\displaystyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }f_{n}(x)}
is called uniformly absolutely-convergent if the series of nonnegative functions
∑ n = 0 ∞ | f n ( x ) | {\displaystyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }|f_{n}(x)|}
is uniformly convergent.
Distinctions A series can be uniformly convergent and absolutely convergent without being uniformly absolutely-convergent. For example, if ƒn(x) = xn/n on the open interval (−1,0), then the series Σfn(x) converges uniformly by comparison of the partial sums to those of Σ(−1)n/n, and the series Σ|fn(x)| converges absolutely at each point by the geometric series test, but Σ|fn(x)| does not converge uniformly. Intuitively, this is because the absolute-convergence gets slower and slower as x approaches −1, where convergence holds but absolute convergence fails.
Generalizations If a series of functions is uniformly absolutely-convergent on some neighborhood of each point of a topological space, it is locally uniformly absolutely-convergent. If a series is uniformly absolutely-convergent on all compact subsets of a topological space, it is compactly (uniformly) absolutely-convergent. If the topological space is locally compact, these notions are equivalent.
Properties If a series of functions into C (or any Banach space) is uniformly absolutely-convergent, then it is uniformly convergent. Uniform absolute-convergence is independent of the ordering of a series. This is because, for a series of nonnegative functions, uniform convergence is equivalent to the property that, for any ε > 0, there are finitely many terms of the series such that excluding these terms results in a series with total sum less than the constant function ε, and this property does not refer to the ordering.
See also Modes of convergence (annotated index)
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