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Terminal Summation: Extending The Concept Of Convergence, Max Tran, Ayalur Krishnan

Publications and Research

This paper presents an atypical method for summing divergent series, and provides a sum for the divergent series log(n). We use an idea of T.E. Phipps, called Terminal Summation, which uses asymptotic analysis to assign a value to divergent series. The method associates a series to an appropriate difference equations having boundary conditions at infinity, and solves the difference equations which then provide a value for the original series. We point out connections between Phipps' method, the Euler-MacLaurin sum formula, the Ramanujan sum and other traditional methods for summing divergent series.