1.II.10E

Analysis | Part IA, 2006

Prove that if the function ff is infinitely differentiable on an interval (r,s)(r, s) containing aa, then for any x∈(r,s)x \in(r, s) and any positive integer nn we may expand f(x)f(x) in the form

f(a)+(x−a)f′(a)+(x−a)22!f′′(a)+⋯+(x−a)nn!f(n)(a)+Rn(f,a,x),f(a)+(x-a) f^{\prime}(a)+\frac{(x-a)^{2}}{2 !} f^{\prime \prime}(a)+\cdots+\frac{(x-a)^{n}}{n !} f^{(n)}(a)+R_{n}(f, a, x),

where the remainder term Rn(f,a,x)R_{n}(f, a, x) should be specified explicitly in terms of f(n+1)f^{(n+1)}.

Let p(t)p(t) be a nonzero polynomial in tt, and let ff be the real function defined by

f(x)=p(1x)exp⁡(−1x2)(x≠0),f(0)=0.f(x)=p\left(\frac{1}{x}\right) \exp \left(-\frac{1}{x^{2}}\right) \quad(x \neq 0), \quad f(0)=0 .

Show that ff is differentiable everywhere and that

f′(x)=q(1x)exp⁡(−1x2)(x≠0),f′(0)=0,f^{\prime}(x)=q\left(\frac{1}{x}\right) \exp \left(-\frac{1}{x^{2}}\right) \quad(x \neq 0), \quad f^{\prime}(0)=0,

where q(t)=2t3p(t)−t2p′(t)q(t)=2 t^{3} p(t)-t^{2} p^{\prime}(t). Deduce that ff is infinitely differentiable, but that there exist arbitrarily small values of xx for which the remainder term Rn(f,0,x)R_{n}(f, 0, x) in the Taylor expansion of ff about 0 does not tend to 0 as n→∞n \rightarrow \infty.

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