Define a function
- Prove that
has derivatives of every order everywhere on
.
- Prove that the
th derivative at 0,
, is equal to 0 for all
. This shows that the Taylor series for
at the point
converges everywhere on
but it does not represent the function away from the origin.
We prove parts (a) and (b) at the same time. Then, we prove Apostol’s comment in part (b).
Proof. We show a bit more than requested, not only that exists for all
, but in fact,
for all
. The proof is by induction. For the case
we have,
Now, assume we have shown for some integer
. We then consider
,
Since for any polynomial
in
, and
as
. Thus, we indeed have
for all
Proof. Since we have shown in part (a) that for all
, the Taylor’s series generated by
about 0 is just the zero function. This clearly converges everywhere on
; however, for
,
since it is always
for any
. Therefore, we see that the Taylor series generated by
about 0 converges everywhere on
but only equals
at
(Note: This turns out to be an important example. In real analysis the fact that we can have a Taylor expansion for a function that converges everywhere, but does not represent the function breaks a lot of theorems we wish were true. It turns out this is why complex analysis is so much nicer than real analysis. In the complex case if we have a Taylor expansion then it does represent the function. Anyway, this example will come back many times if you keep doing analysis, so it’s worth understanding it now.)
Looking forward to complex analysis one day *fingers crossed*