Radius of a convergence of power series of holomorphic function about a point

analytic-continuationanalytic-functionscomplex-analysispower series

I observed that the radius of convergence of power series in the complex plane is basically the distance to nearest singularity of the function.I want to know whether my observation is correct or not.I have tried for a proof but didn't succeed.Any help will be appreciable.(If it is correct then either provide the proof or a reference from book)
Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

More precisely, the radius of convergence of the series about $z=a$ is the largest $r$ such that there is an analytic function in the open disk of radius $r$ about $a$ which has the given power series as its Taylor series around $z=a$. In particular, removable singularities don't count, and branch cuts don't count if they can be moved out of the way.

EDIT: To prove this, you can proceed as follows:

  1. If $f$ is analytic in the open disc of radius $r$ about $a$, use Cauchy's estimates to show that for any $r_1 < r$ the radius of convergence of the Taylor series of $f$ around $z=a$ is at least $r_1$. Thus the radius of convergence is at least $r$.
  2. Conversely, if the series $\sum_{k} c_k (z-a)^k$ has radius of convergence $\ge r$, then this series converges uniformly on compact subsets of the disk of radius $r$ about $a$, and the sum of the series is therefore an analytic function on that disk; moreover (using Cauchy's formula) the Taylor series of this function around $z=a$ is the given series.