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Math2058 2023 Tuto3

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23 views2 pages

Math2058 2023 Tuto3

Uploaded by

bi0l9l2w1h Fung
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Department of Mathematics
MATH2058 Honours Mathematical Analysis I
Tutorial 3

Subsequences

Definition. Let (xn ) be a sequence of real numbers and let n1 < n2 < · · · < nk < · · · be
a strictly increasing sequence of natural numbers. Then the sequence (xnk ) is called a
subsequence of (xn ).

Theorem 1. Let (xn ) be a sequence of real numbers. Then the following are equivalent:

(i) (xn ) does not converge to x ∈ R.

(ii) There exists ε0 > 0 such that for any k ∈ N, there exists nk ∈ N such that nk ≥ k
and |xnk − x| ≥ ε0 .

(iii) There exists ε0 > 0 and a subsequence (xnk ) of (xn ) such that |xnk − x| ≥ ε0 for all
k ∈ N.

Example 1. Let ` ∈ R. Show that a sequence (xn ) converges to ` if and only if every
subsequence of (xn ) has a further subsequence that converges to `

Example 2. Show that if (xn ) is unbounded, then it has a subsequence (xnk ) such that
lim(1/xnk ) = 0.

Bolzano-Weierstrass Theorem

The Bolzano-Weierstrass Theorem. A bounded sequence of real numbers has a con-


vergent subsequence

Example 3. Prove that a bounded divergent sequence has two subsequences converging
to different limits.

Limit Superior and Limit Inferior

Let (xn ) be a bounded sequence of real numbers. For each n ∈ N, define

an = inf xk = inf{xk : k ≥ n} and bn = sup xk = sup{xk : k ≥ n}.


k≥n k≥n

Then (an ) and (bn ) are both monotone ((an ) increasing and (bn ) decreasing) and bounded,
hence convergent.
2023 Fall MATH2058 2

Definition. The limit inferior and limit superior of (xn ) are defined, respectively, by
 
lim xn := lim an = sup inf xk ,
n≥1 k≥n
 
lim xn := lim bn = inf sup xk .
n≥1 k≥n

Example 4. Alternate the terms of the sequences (1 + 1/n) and (−1/n) to obtain the
sequence (xn ) given by

(2, −1, 3/2, −1/2, 4/3, −1/3, 5/4, −1/4, . . . ).

Determine the values of lim(xn ) and lim(xn ).

Proposition 2. Let (xn ) be a bounded sequence of real numbers. Then we have

(i) lim xn ≤ lim xn ;

(ii) (xn ) converges to ` if and only if lim xn = lim xn . In this case, we have lim xn =
lim xn = lim xn .

Proposition 3. Let (xn ) and (yn ) be bounded sequences of real numbers. Then we have

(i) lim(−xn ) = − lim xn ;

(ii) lim(axn ) = a(lim xn ) and lim(axn ) = a(lim xn ) for a ≥ 0;

(iii) if xn ≤ yn for all n, then lim xn ≤ lim yn and lim xn ≤ lim yn ;

(iv) lim xn + lim yn ≤ lim(xn + yn ) ≤ lim xn + lim yn ≤ lim(xn + yn ) ≤ lim xn + lim yn .

Example 5. Let (xn ) be a bounded sequence of real numbers. Let s ∈ R. Show that

(i) lim xn ≤ s if and only if for any ε > 0, there is N ∈ N such that xn < s + ε for all
n ≥ N ; and

(ii) lim xn ≥ s if and only if for any ε > 0, for all N ∈ N, there is n ≥ N such that
xn > s − ε.

Example 6. Let (xn ) be a sequence of positive real numbers such that (xn+1 /xn ) is
√
bounded. Show that ( n xn ) is also bounded and that
xn+1 √ √ xn+1
lim inf ≤ lim inf n xn ≤ lim sup n xn ≤ lim sup .
n xn n n n xn

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