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In mathematics, a series or integral is said to be conditionally convergent if it converges, but it does not converge absolutely.

Definition

More precisely, a series of real numbers ${\textstyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }a_{n}}$ is said to converge conditionally if ${\textstyle \lim _{m\rightarrow \infty }\,\sum _{n=0}^{m}a_{n}}$ exists (as a finite real number, i.e. not ${\displaystyle \infty }$ or ${\displaystyle -\infty }$), but ${\textstyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\left|a_{n}\right|=\infty .}$

A classic example is the alternating harmonic series given by $${\displaystyle 1-{1 \over 2}+{1 \over 3}-{1 \over 4}+{1 \over 5}-\cdots =\sum \limits _{n=1}^{\infty }{(-1)^{n+1} \over n},}$$ which converges to ${\displaystyle \ln(2)}$, but is not absolutely convergent (see Harmonic series).

Bernhard Riemann proved that a conditionally convergent series may be rearranged to converge to any value at all, including ∞ or −∞; see Riemann series theorem. Agnew's theorem describes rearrangements that preserve convergence for all convergent series.

The Lévy–Steinitz theorem identifies the set of values to which a series of terms in R can converge.

A typical conditionally convergent integral is that on the non-negative real axis of ${\textstyle \sin(x^{2})}$ (see Fresnel integral).

See also

• Absolute convergence
• Unconditional convergence

References

• Walter Rudin, Principles of Mathematical Analysis (McGraw-Hill: New York, 1964).

v t e Sequences and series
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Properties of sequences	Cauchy sequence Monotonic function Periodic sequence
Properties of series	Series Alternating Convergent Divergent Telescoping Convergence Absolute Conditional Uniform
Explicit series	Convergent 1/2 − 1/4 + 1/8 − 1/16 + ⋯ 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ⋯ 1/4 + 1/16 + 1/64 + 1/256 + ⋯ 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ... (Riemann zeta function) Divergent 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + ⋯ 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + ⋯ (Grandi's series) 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ⋯ 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + ⋯ 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ⋯ 1 − 2 + 4 − 8 + ⋯ Infinite arithmetic series 1 − 1 + 2 − 6 + 24 − 120 + ⋯ (alternating factorials) 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + ⋯ (harmonic series) 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/5 + 1/7 + 1/11 + ⋯ (inverses of primes)
Kinds of series	Taylor series Power series Formal power series Laurent series Puiseux series Dirichlet series Trigonometric series Fourier series Generating series
Hypergeometric series	Generalized hypergeometric series Hypergeometric function of a matrix argument Lauricella hypergeometric series Modular hypergeometric series Riemann's differential equation Theta hypergeometric series
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• Integral calculus
• Convergence (mathematics)
• Summability theory