On filter convergence and series

A. Leonov

In this talk we will discuss generalizations on fil-

ters of two major properties of convergent series of
reals. We study the convergence to 0 of terms of con-
vergent series property for filters and consider filter
generalizations of Riemann rearrangement theorem.

1. Introduction. Basic definitions

The sum range of a series on real line (the set of

sums of all its convergent rearrangements), is de-
scribed by the famous Riemann’s theorem:
P∞
Riemann’s theorem Let k=1 xk be a condi-
tionally convergent series of real numbers. Then for
every s ∈ PR ∪ {±∞} there exists a permutation π
such that ∞ k=1 xπ(k) = s .
There is a number of generalizations of the Rie-
mann’s theorem to more general series (vectors,
functions, etc. We consider filter generalization of
the usual notion of series convergence.

Recall that a filter F on N is a non-empty collec-

tion of subsets of N satisfying the
T following axioms:
∅ ∈/ F ; if A, B ∈ F then A B ∈ F ; and for
every A ∈ F if B ⊃ A then B ∈ F .
1
2

A sequence (xn) , n ∈ N in a topological space X

is said to be F -convergent to x if for every neigh-
borhood U of x the set {n ∈ N : xn ∈ U } be-
longs to F . In particular if one takes as F the filter
of sets with finite complements (the Fréchet filter),
then F -convergence coincides with the ordinary one.

The filter convergence of series is naturally defined

as filter convergence
P of the sequence of its partial
sums, i.e. a series Pxk is F -convergent to s if the
sequence (sn) = ( nk=1 P xk ) is F -convergent P to s
(and we write s = F- k xk or simply s = F xk ,
when there is only one possible summing index).
Example 1 (2n-filter).
F2n = {A ⊂ 2N : N\A is finite}
Example 2 (Statistical convergence filter).
|A ∩ {1, ..., n}|
Fst. = {A ⊂ N : lim = 1}
n→∞ n
There are many other examples of filters, among
them it is worth mentioning ultrafilters, big class
of analytical filters, which includes summable filters,
Erdös-Uhlam filters, filters generated by summability
matrices.
2. Generalizations of Riemann’s
rearrangement theorem on filters

There are two main approaches to generalize Rie-

mann’s rearrangement theorem on filters. The latest
one is the approach described in [3] by Rafal Filipów
 3

and Piotr Szuca in 2010. The authors considered re-

arrangements of conditionally convergent series only
on ”small sets” (complements of filter elements). In
the paper filters preserving Riemann’s theorem are
characterized in terms of extendability to a summa-
ble filter.
Theorem 2.1. [3] Let F be a filter on N . The
following conditions are equivalent.
(1) For
P every conditionally convergent series
n∈N an and r ∈ R there is a permutation
πr : N → N such that
{n ∈ N : πr (n) = n} ∈ F
(2) For
P every conditionally convergent series
Pn∈N an there is A ∈ F such that
n∈N\A an is also conditionally convergent.
(3) F cannot be extended to a summable filter.
i.e. F 6⊂ Fsum for any summable Fsum .

The other approach to generalize Riemann’s theo-

rem is to describe a filter sum range of series.
Definition 2.2. A point s P belongs to the sum
range along F of the seriesP xk if there exists a
permutation π such that F xπ(k) = s . The set of
all such points P F of
P is called the sum range along
the series xk and is denoted by SRF ( xk ) .
Y. Dybskiy and K. Slutsky in [2] studied the gen-
eralizations of the Riemann theorem for two filters
from examples 1 and 2. They obtained the full de-
scription of the sum range along both the statistical
convergence filter and the 2n-filter.
4

Surprisingly, the simplicity of a filter does not mean

the simplicity of the problem. And the description of
the sum range along 2n-filter appeared to be much
more complicated than along the statistical conver-
gence filter. Besides the two usual cases of one point
or the whole real line, the sum range can be an arith-
metic progression a + λZ , a, λ ∈ R (for the statisti-
cal convergence filter) and shifted additive subgroup
of the form a + {c1z1 + · · · + cl zl | zk ∈ E, ci ∈
Z, lk=1 ck is even} , where E is an ε -separated set
P
(for the 2n-filter).

In [4] instead of considering concrete filters we stud-

ied classes of filters for which the description of the
sum range can be given explicitly. We studied a class
of filters F with the following property: for every
F -convergent series the sum range along F of it
coincides with its limit point range.

Definition 2.3. A point sPbelongs to the limit

point range of the series xk if there exists a
permutation π and an increasingPmksequence of natu-
rals (mk ) such that limk→∞ j=1 xπ(j) = s . The
set of all suchP
points is called the limit-pointPrange
of the series xk and is denoted by LP R( xk ) .

P
It is easyPto see that LP R(P xk ) is a closed set
and SRF ( xk ) ⊂ PLP R( xk ) . H.Hadwiger [5]
proved that LP R( xk ) is a shifted closed additive
subgroup of the space in which P the series lives. In
particular, on the real line LP R( xk ) can be either
 5

R or ∅ or an arithmetic progression of the form a +

λZ .
In paper [4] necessary and sufficient conditions for
the equality SRF = LP R are given. But the char-
acterization of this property is still an open question.
We give an overview of these results in the next sec-
tion.
6

3. Sufficient condition for the equality

LP R = SRF

It is the specificity of the usual convergence that

every conditionally convergent series after rearrange-
ment converges to every given in advance real num-
ber (the sum range is R ).

Proposition 3.1. Let F be a filter on N . The

following conditions are equivalent
(1) P
For every sequence (xk ) Psuch that series
xk F -converges SRF ( xk ) is either R
or one point x ∈ R .
(2) P
For every sequence (xk ) such that series
xk F -converges it follows that xk →k→∞
0.
(3) F is the Fréchet filter.
Proof. Implication (3) ⇒ (1) is the usual Riemann re-
arrangement theorem; (3) ⇒ (2) is the necessary con-
dition for the usual convergence of series. To show
the inverse implications (1) ⇒ (3) and (2) ⇒ (3) let
us suppose the contrary. F is not the Fréchet filter
means that there is some infinite C ⊂ N such that
A = N \ C ∈ F . Denote by E the set A ∩ (C + 1)
and let (xk ) be the following sequence: xk is 1 for
k ∈ E , −1 for k ∈ (E − 1) P and 0 for the rest
k ∈ N \ (E ∪P (E − 1)) . Then xk F -converges to
0 but SRF ( xk ) = Z and xk 6→k→∞ 0 . 

Thus, the sequence convergence to 0 is the charac-

teristic property of the usual convergence of series.
 7

The next section is devoted to description of a filter

classes with similar properties.
The above theorem also says that we must seek
a generalization of Riemann’s theorem on filters in
another form. The one which we study is the equality
SRF = LP R . Below we give some sufficient and
necessary conditions for it.

Definition 3.2. A filter F is said to have the 1-

shift property if for every A ∈ F there is s ∈ A
such that s + 1 ∈ A .

Definition 3.3. A filter F is said to have the un-

bounded gap property if there is A ∈ F , A = (an)
such that the sequence of gn = an+1 − an is un-
bounded.

Theorem 3.4. Let F be a filter which has the

1-shift property and the unbounded gap P
property.
Then for every P F -convergent
P series xk the
equality SRF ( xk ) = LP R( xk ) holds.

Theorem 3.5. Let F be a filter which is not

Fréchet. The unbounded gap property is a nec-
essary condition
P in orderPto fulfill the equal-
ity SRF ( xk ) =P LP R( xk ) for every F -
convergent series xk .
8

Proof. Assuming that the unbounded gap property

does not hold we construct P F -summable toP0 se-
quence (xk ) such that SRF ( xk ) 6= LP R( xk ) .
The idea of the construction is the following.
Let 1 be the desired limiting point which is not
the FP -limit. For the series terms, to make 1 ∈
LP R( xk ) , we take some integers yk from which
we can make presentations of 1 as a sum of a fixed
number of terms. The monotone growth of the num-
ber of these terms and the uniqueness P of each pre-
sentation will result in that 1 6∈ SRF ( xk ) . Ad-
joining (−yk ) to (yk ) and infinitely many zeros, if
needed (to provide F -convergence to 0), we will get
the sequence (xk ) we need.


Though we do not know whether the 1-shift prop-

erty is a necessary condition, it is essential. To see
this let us consider an example.

Proposition 3.6. If F contains an arithmetic

progression, i.e. an element A of the form qN +
n , where q > 1 and 0 ≤ n <P q , then there is a
sequence (x
P k ) such that series
P xk F -converges
and SRF ( xk ) 6= LP R( xk ) .

Proof. Let us take the following F -convergent to 0

series
n q
z }| { z }| {
0 + . . . + 0 + 1 + . . . + 1 + (1 − q)
 9

q
z }| {
+ 1 + . . . + 1 + (1 − q) + . . .
P
For every permutation σ such that xσ(j) F -
converges we can find B ∈ F , B = (bi) ⊂ A
such that max1≤j≤n σ(j) < b1 , i.e. all 0-s are al-
ready summed. Then every sum bj=1
Pi
xσ(j) can be
represented as a sum of summands with q non-zero
terms in each. Every summand is the sum of m
“ (1 − q) ”-s and q − m “ 1 ”-s, 0 P ≤ m ≤ q which
is (1 − m)qP. Thus we have SRFP ( xk ) = qZ and
1 6∈ SRF ( xk ) but 1 ∈ LP R( xk ) . 

In particular we have that neither the set of all

odd numbers nor the set of all even numbers
P can
belongPto a filter with the property SRF ( xk ) =
LP R( xk ) . Therefore, every ultrafilter does not
have the studied property.
4. Sequence convergence to 0 of a
series for filters

Proposition 4.1. Let F be a filter on N . The

following conditions are equivalent
P
(1) For every sequence (xk ) such that xk F -
converges there is a null subsequence (xkn ) .
(2) F has the 1-shift property.

P
Proof. (2) ⇒ (1). Let F xk = x and suppose that
(xk ) has no null subsequence. Then there is δ > 0
and N ∈ N such that |xk | > δ for k > N . For
ε = δ/4 let us find A = (ak ) ∈ F , with a1 > N ,
10
Pak
such that |x − n=1 xn| < ε for every k ∈ N . Take
s ∈ A such that s + 1 ∈ A then we come to a
contradiction:
Xs+1 Xs
ε > |x− xn| ≥ |xs+1|−|x− xn| > δ−ε > 2ε.
n=1 n=1

(1) ⇒ (2). Suppose that there is A = (ak ) ∈ F

such that s ∈ A implies that s + 1 6∈ A , that is
ak +1 < ak+1 for all k ∈ N . Denote dk = ak −ak−1 ,
where a0 = 0 , and let (xk ) be such sequence: xn is
1 for n ∈ A , in the case of odd dk set xak−1+1 = −1 ,
in the case of even dk set xak−1+1 = −2 , and set
xn = (−1)n−ak−1 for ak−1 +1 < n < ak . Then
P
xk
F -converges but (xk ) has no null subsequence. 

Theorem 4.2. Let F be a filter on N . The fol-

lowing properties of a sequence an > 0 , n ∈ N
are equivalent:
(1) (an) is F -admissible;
(2) F- lim anen = 0 in weak topology;
(3) For every I ∈ F ∗
X
a−2
n = ∞.
n∈I

a−2
P
(4) For every I ⊂ N , if n∈I n < ∞ , then
I ∈ IF .
A filter F is called P -filter if for every sequence
of filter elements An there is A∞ ∈ F such that
#(A∞ \An) < ∞ for every n ∈ N . An ideal is called
P -ideal if the corresponding filter of complements is
 11

a P -filter. In other words P -filters permit a kind of

diagonal-selection argument.
Definition 4.3. Let F be a filter. A sequence of
An ⊂ N is said to be exhaustive for F if A1 ⊂
A2 ⊂ . . . and for every I ∈ F ∗ there is an n ∈ N
such that I ∩ An ∈ F ∗ .
Remark 4.4. (5.10) It is easy to see that for a P -
p F the sequence of sets AN := {k ∈ N :
filter
ak φ({k}) < N } , N = 1, 2, . . . , is not exhaus-
tive if and only if there is J ∈ F ∗ such that
p
(4.1) an φ({n}) → ∞ along J.
Proof. The ”if” part. Condition (4.1) means that
for every N > 0 there is f (N ) such p that for all
k > f (N ), k ∈ J the inequality ak φ({k}) ≥ N
p Let us consider the set J ∩ AN = {k ∈ J :
holds.
ak φ({k}) < N } it is finite (consists of not more
then f (N ) elements) and hence it can not belong to
F∗ .
The ”only if” part. Suppose that (AN ) is not
exhaustive sequence. So there exists I ∈ F ∗ such
that for every N the set I ∩ AN 6∈ F ∗ , in other
words it belongs to the corresponding ideal. Denote
BN = N \ (I ∩ AN ) , we have BN ∈ F . By the
definition of P -filter we find a set B∞ ∈ F such that
#(B∞ \ BN ) < ∞ . Let f (N ) stands for this finite
number of elements, that is #(B∞ \ BN ) = #(B∞ ∩
I ∩ AN ) = f (N ) . Denoting by J = B∞ ∩ I we
obtain that for every N > p 0 there is f (N ) such that
k 6∈ AN (the inequality ak φ({k}) ≥ N holds) for
12

all k > f (N ), k ∈ J . Which gives us the condition

(4.1). 
Theorem 4.5. Let s = (sk ) be a sequence
P∞ of non-
negative real numbers such that k=1 sk = ∞ ,
and let F be either the corresponding Erdös-
Ulam filter or F = F s . A sequence (an) is
F -admissible if and
p only if the sequence of sets
AN := {k ∈ N : ak φ({k}) < N } , N = 1, 2, . . . ,
is exhaustive for F .
The Theorems 4.5 and 4.2 together with Remark
4.4 give us an interesting corollary regarding series
subsequences convergence.
Corollary 4.6. (5.17) For a sequence (xn) of
positive reals the following conditions are equiv-
alent:
• there is a I ∈ Fst∗ such that
P
n∈I xn < ∞ ,
• there is a J ∈ Fst∗ such that nxn →n∈J 0 .
Proof. Theorem 4.2 says that (an) is not F -
admissible if and only if
• there is I ∈ Fst∗ such that n∈I a−2
P
n < ∞.
By Theorem 4.5 (an) is not F -admissible if and
only if the sequence of AN is not exhaustive, which
in its turn by Remark 4.4 means that p
• there is J ∈ Fst∗ such that an φ({n}) →
1
∞ (i.e. a2 φ({n}) → 0) along J.
n
The last thing which we need to do is to put an =
√
1/ xn and φ({n}) = 1/n into both marked state-
ments.

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[2] Dybskiy Y.; Slutsky K., Riemann Rearrange-
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/arXiv:math.FA/0612840v1 28 Dec 2006
[3] Rafal Filipw, Piotr Szuca Rearrangement of con-
ditionally convergent series on a small set Journal
of Mathematical Analysis and Applications Vol-
ume 362, Issue 1, 1 February 2010, Pages 6471.
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134-140 (2008)
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