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12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Divergent series summation beyond natural boundaries

I'm hoping to investigate the effects of divergent summation methods on series which cannot be analytically continued due to a dense set of singularities. At least a priori, it doesn't seem that a ...
Caleb Briggs's user avatar
  • 1,730
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Value of divergent sum $\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n n^n$

I'm hoping to find a reasonable value to assign to the divergent series $\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n n^n$ and $\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n (xn)^n$. For the first one, I have obtained something around 0.71, ...
Caleb Briggs's user avatar
  • 1,730
1 vote
0 answers
106 views

What intuitive meaning "determinant" of a divergency (divergent integral, series, germ, pole or a singularity) can have?

I am working on the algebra of "divergencies", that is, infinite integrals, series, and germs. So, I decided to construct something similar to the modulus or determinant of a matrix of these ...
Anixx's user avatar
  • 10.1k
37 votes
2 answers
5k views

1+2+3+4+… and −⅛

Is there some deeper meaning to the following derivation (or rather one-parameter family of derivations) associating the divergent series $1+2+3+4+…$ with the value $-\frac 1 8$ (as opposed to the ...
James Propp's user avatar
  • 19.7k
7 votes
3 answers
679 views

Is regularization of infinite sums by analytic continuation unique?

There are ill-posed summations that we can assign values to, take for concreteness, $$ S = \sum_{k=0}^\infty k $$ to which we can assign $-1/12$ by several methods. Is there a fundamental and rigorous ...
MCH's user avatar
  • 1,324
2 votes
0 answers
232 views

Did anyone ever propose the distinction between "divergent to infinity" as opposed to "divergent but with finite average"?

There are different regularization methods that allow us to ascribe finite values to divergent integrals, series or sequences. Still, in my view there is fundamental difference between divergent ...
Anixx's user avatar
  • 10.1k