# Unconditional convergence

(Redirected from Unconditionally convergent)

Unconditional convergence is a topological property (convergence) related to an algebraical object (sum). It is an extension of the notion of convergence for series of countably many elements to series of arbitrarily many. It has been mostly studied in Banach spaces.

## Definition

Let ${\displaystyle X}$ be a topological vector space. Let ${\displaystyle I}$ be an index set and ${\displaystyle x_{i}\in X}$ for all ${\displaystyle i\in I}$.

The series ${\displaystyle \textstyle \sum _{i\in I}x_{i}}$ is called unconditionally convergent to ${\displaystyle x\in X}$, if

• the indexing set ${\displaystyle I_{0}:=\{i\in I:x_{i}\neq 0\}}$ is countable and
• for every permutation of ${\displaystyle I_{0}:=\{i\in I:x_{i}\neq 0\}}$ the relation holds:${\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^{\infty }x_{i}=x}$

## Alternative definition

Unconditional convergence is often defined in an equivalent way: A series is unconditionally convergent if for every sequence ${\displaystyle (\varepsilon _{n})_{n=1}^{\infty }}$, with ${\displaystyle \varepsilon _{n}\in \{-1,+1\}}$, the series

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\varepsilon _{n}x_{n}}$

converges.

Every absolutely convergent series is unconditionally convergent, but the converse implication does not hold in general: if X is an infinite dimensional Banach space, then by Dvoretzky–Rogers theorem there always exists an unconditionally convergent series in this space that is not absolutely convergent. However, when X = Rn, then, by the Riemann series theorem, the series ${\displaystyle \sum x_{n}}$ is unconditionally convergent if and only if it is absolutely convergent.