Math 725 Homework 1 Spring 2014

Tianyu Tao January 28, 2014

Problem: Given an arbitrary sequence {xn }, n = 0, 1, . . . , xn R, is it possible to nd f (x) D(R) with f (n) (0) = xn for n = 0, 1, 2, . . .?

Answer: This is possible. We shall modify the formal power series

n=1

xn n t so that the result n!

ts our purpose. First, recall that there exist (x) D(R) such that the support of is [2, 2] and n (x) = 1 on [1, 1]. We shall set fn (t) = n gn (n t), where n is a scaling factor to be chosen xn n later, and gn (t) = fn (t), in order to show this series t (t). We want to dene f (t) = n! n=0
n k k n converge and has the right derivative, note fn (t) = gn , n gn (n x)n = n ( k ) kn n we want to choose n so that n gn < 2 for 0 k < n, this is doable since by our (k) construction gn D(R), so gn is nite for each such k , so we can pick large enough n to satisfy our requirement. Thus, we can show the f (t) so dened above is indeed in D(R), x any natural number k (k) (k ) (k) (k ) k (including 0), we have n>k |fn (t)|, note n=1 |fn (t)| + n=1 |fn (t)| = n=1 fn (t) (k ) (k) (k)

by our choice of n , for n > k we have that fn < 2n , so n>k |fn (t)| will converge, (k) (k ) and since k n=1 |fn (t)| is a nite sum, we see n=1 fn (t) converge for any k and any t uniformly. By the theorem about uniform convergence and dierentiation we must conclude that f (t) = n fn (t) is well-dened and can be dierentiated term-by-term to any order. To see f (t) have the desired property, namely f (n) (0) = xn for each n. We dierentiate fn k times and apply the product rule several times, and we see
(k) fn (t) k j

(k)

(k)

xn = n!

j =0

k j (kj ) (tn )(j ) k (n t) n j

Now, for j < k , (0) = 0 because (t) = 1 for t [1, 1], also note that for k < n, (t ) |t=0 = 0, and for k > n, (tn )(k) = 0, hence we see: xn (0) (0)n! = xn , if n = k (k) fn (0) = n! 0 if n = k
n (k )

Since f (t) = fn (t), we have f (n) (0) = fn (0) = xn , and the f we constructed has its support a subset of [2, 2], indeed f D(R). 1

(n)