I would like to know the relationships between bounded and convergent series. By bounded series I mean a series whose sequence of partial sums is bounded. For example, it seems natural that if a series is convergent, it is also bounded, but does the converse hold?
Thanks in advance,
Best Answer
Whenever we have a series, $$\sum_{i=1}^{\infty} a_i,$$ we "automatically" get two sequences out of that series:
When we talk about "convergence of the series", we are really talking about convergence of the sequence of partial sums: the series $\sum a_i$ converges if and only if the sequence $(s_n)$ converges. That is, your definitions about "series" are really about "sequence of partial sums", and so you have the usual relationship:
In particular, $$\sum_{i=1}^{\infty}a_i\text{ converges}\Longleftrightarrow \{s_i\}_{i=1}^{\infty}\text{ converges}\Longrightarrow \{s_i\}_{i=1}^{\infty}\text{ is bounded}\Longleftrightarrow \sum_{i=1}^{\infty}a_i\text{ is bounded}$$ (where "is bounded" is as per your definition above); but it is possible for $\{s_i\}_{i=1}^{\infty}$ to be bounded, and not convergent, so one can have a series $\sum_{i=1}^{\infty}a_i$ that is bounded (i.e., the sequence of partial sums is bounded) but does not converge.
A simple example of this is $\sum_{i=1}^{\infty} (-1)^n$. The partial sums are $s_{2k+1} = -1$ and $s_{2k}=0$ for every $k$, so the sequence of partial sums is: $$-1,\ 0,\ -1,\ 0,\ -1,\ldots$$ which is bounded but not convergent. So the series is bounded but not convergent.
The relevant theorem for sequences, as you are no doubt aware, is:
Theorem. If $\{b_n\}$ is a monotone sequence, then $\{b_n\}$ converges if and only if it is bounded.
How does that translate for series? When is the sequence of partial sums monotone?
$\{s_i\}$ is increasing if and only if $s_n\leq s_{n+1}$ for all $n$, if and only if $s_{n+1}-s_n\geq 0$ for all $n$; but $s_{n+1}-s_n = a_{n+1}$. So:
Likewise,
So we conclude:
Theorem. Let $\displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^{\infty}a_i$ is a series in which every term $a_i$ is nonnegative. Then the series converges if and only if it is bounded (in the sense that the sequence of partial sums is bounded).