# Cesàro summation

For the song "Cesaro Summability" by the band Tool, see Ænima.

In mathematical analysis, Cesàro summation assigns values to some infinite sums that are not convergent in the usual sense. The Cesàro sum is defined as the limit of the arithmetic mean of the partial sums of the series.

Cesàro summation is named for the Italian analyst Ernesto Cesàro (1859–1906).

The term summation can be misleading, as some statements and proofs regarding Cesàro summation can be said to implicate the Eilenberg–Mazur swindle. For example, it is commonly applied to Grandi's series with the conclusion that the sum of that series is 1/2, a result that can readily be disproven.

## Definition

Let {an} be a sequence, and let

${\displaystyle s_{k}=a_{1}+\cdots +a_{k}=\sum _{n=1}^{k}a_{n}.}$

be the kth partial sum of the series

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }a_{n}.}$

The series
n = 1
an
is called Cesàro summable, with Cesàro sum A, if the average value of its partial sums sk tends to A:

${\displaystyle \lim _{n\to \infty }{\frac {1}{n}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}s_{k}=A.}$

In other words, the Cesàro sum of an infinite series is the limit of the arithmetic mean (average) of the first n partial sums of the series, as n goes to infinity. If a series is convergent, then it is Cesàro summable and its Cesàro sum is the usual sum. For any convergent sequence, the corresponding series is Cesàro summable and the limit of the sequence coincides with the Cesàro sum.

### Examples

Let an = (−1)n for n ≥ 0. That is, {an} is the sequence

${\displaystyle 1,\,-1,\,1,\,-1,\ldots }$

Let G denote the series

${\displaystyle G=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }a_{n}=1-1+1-1+1-\cdots }$

This series G is known as Grandi's series.

Let {sk} denote the sequence of partial sums, up to k:

${\displaystyle s_{k}=\sum _{n=0}^{k}a_{n}=1,\,0,\,1,\,0,\ldots }$

This does not converge to a single number. Let {tn} denote the sequence

${\displaystyle t_{n}={\frac {1}{n}}\sum _{k=1}^{n}s_{k}={\tfrac {1}{1}},\,{\tfrac {1}{2}},\,{\tfrac {2}{3}},\,{\tfrac {2}{4}},\,{\tfrac {3}{5}},\,{\tfrac {3}{6}},\,{\tfrac {4}{7}},\,{\tfrac {4}{8}},\ldots }$

This results in

${\displaystyle \lim _{n\to \infty }t_{n}={\tfrac {1}{2}}.}$

Therefore the Cesàro sum of the series G is 1/2.

Lets try another example, where an = n for n ≥ 1. That is, {an} is the sequence

${\displaystyle 1,\,2,\,3,\,4,\ldots }$

and let G now denote the series

${\displaystyle G=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }a_{n}=1+2+3+4+5+\cdots }$

Then the sequence of partial sums {sn} is

${\displaystyle 1,\,3,\,6,\,10,\ldots }$

and the evaluation of G diverges to infinity. The terms of the sequence of means of partial sums {tn} are here

${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{1}},\,{\tfrac {4}{2}},\,{\tfrac {10}{3}},\,{\tfrac {20}{4}},\ldots }$

Thus, this sequence diverges to infinity as well as G, and G is now not Cesàro summable. In fact, for any series which diverges to (positive or negative) infinity the Cesàro method also leads to a sequence that diverges likewise, and hence such a series is not Cesàro summable.

## (C, α) summation

In 1890, Ernesto Cesàro stated a broader family of summation methods which have since been called (C, α) for non-negative integers α. The (C, 0) method is just ordinary summation, and (C, 1) is Cesàro summation as described above.

The higher-order methods can be described as follows: given a series an, define the quantities

{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}A_{n}^{-1}&=a_{n}\\A_{n}^{\alpha }&=\sum _{k=0}^{n}A_{k}^{\alpha -1}\end{aligned}}}

(where the upper indices do not denote exponents) and define Eα
n
to be Aα
n
for the series 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + …. Then the (C, α) sum of an is denoted by (C, α)-∑an and has the value

${\displaystyle (\mathrm {C} ,\alpha ){\text{-}}\sum _{j=0}^{\infty }a_{j}=\lim _{n\to \infty }{\frac {A_{n}^{\alpha }}{E_{n}^{\alpha }}}}$

if it exists (Shawyer & Watson 1994, pp.16-17). This description represents an α-times iterated application of the initial summation method and can be restated as

${\displaystyle (\mathrm {C} ,\alpha ){\text{-}}\sum _{j=0}^{\infty }a_{j}=\lim _{n\to \infty }\sum _{j=0}^{n}{\frac {\binom {n}{j}}{\binom {n+\alpha }{j}}}a_{j}.}$

Even more generally, for α \ , let Aα
n
be implicitly given by the coefficients of the series

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }A_{n}^{\alpha }x^{n}={\frac {\displaystyle {\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }a_{n}x^{n}}}{(1-x)^{1+\alpha }}},}$

and Eα
n
as above. In particular, Eα
n
are the binomial coefficients of power −1 − α. Then the (C, α) sum of an is defined as above.

If an has a (C, α) sum, then it also has a (C, β) sum for every β > α, and the sums agree; furthermore we have an = o(nα) if α > −1 (see little-o notation).

## Cesàro summability of an integral

Let α ≥ 0. The integral
0
f(x) dx
is Cesàro summable (C, α) if

${\displaystyle \lim _{\lambda \to \infty }\int _{0}^{\lambda }\left(1-{\frac {x}{\lambda }}\right)^{\alpha }f(x)\,\mathrm {d} x}$

exists and is finite (Titchmarsh 1948, §1.15). The value of this limit, should it exist, is the (C, α) sum of the integral. Analogously to the case of the sum of a series, if α = 0, the result is convergence of the improper integral. In the case α = 1, (C, 1) convergence is equivalent to the existence of the limit

${\displaystyle \lim _{\lambda \to \infty }{\frac {1}{\lambda }}\int _{0}^{\lambda }\int _{0}^{x}f(y)\,\mathrm {d} y\,\mathrm {d} x}$

which is the limit of means of the partial integrals.

As is the case with series, if an integral is (C, α) summable for some value of α ≥ 0, then it is also (C, β) summable for all β > α, and the value of the resulting limit is the same.