Easy proof that if $\sum |a_n|$ converges then so does $\prod (1+a_n)$

complex-analysisconvergence-divergenceinfinite-product

I can't seem to find an easy proof that:

  • If $\sum |a_n|$ converges then so does $\prod (1+a_n)$

where $a_n$ is complex, and the sum and product are infinite.


I have know there is a simple explanation that says the product is bounded if the sum converges (or is bounded) but this is not as strong a statement as required.

I have asked a related question but the comments led me to this better question.
Convergence rule for infinite product $\prod (1+a_n)$ with $a_n$ complex.

Best Answer

First, we'd like to take logarithms to relate a sum and a product. So, assume first that none of the $a_n$ lie on the ray $(-\infty, -1],$ so that we may define a branch of the logarithm function $\log(1+z)$ on $\mathbb{C}\setminus (-\infty, -1]$ which we can use on the $a_n.$ Since $|a_n|\rightarrow 0$ by the series convergence, only finitely many of the terms will lie on $(-\infty, -1],$ and so this is in fact sufficient to see the general case, since we can remove those finitely many bad terms from our product without influencing the convergence.

If $\sum_n |a_n|$ converges, then so does $\sum_n \log(1+a_n).$ This is really the crucial claim; noticing that the exponentionals of the partial sums gives the partial product easily shows that the convergence of this sum is equivalent to convergence of the product.

This fortunately follows easily from the limit comparison test. Note that $$\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty} \frac{\log(1+a_n)}{a_n} = 1,$$ since $a_n\rightarrow 0$ and so we actually have a difference quotient $$\frac{\log(1+a_n)}{a_n} = \frac{\log(1+a_n) - \log 1}{a_n - 0}$$ of the $f(z) = \log(1+z)$ function at $z=0.$ The derivative there is $f'(0) = 1,$ and so this limit follows.