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equation solving - Find the domain in which a sequence converges


I seem to have a lot of problems in the format of:



Given the sequence $a_n=\frac{n^\alpha+1}{2n^8+5}$, for $\alpha > 0$, find the values of $\alpha$ such that the sequence converges.




However, I can never seem to get Mathematica to solve for a variable in a limit.


I have tried


Solve[Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions :> a > 0] == 0, a]

Reduce[Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions :> a > 0] == 0, a]

Solve gave me no solutions, with a warning about inverse function. Reduce gave me the solution is C[1] ∈ Integers && α == 0, which also violates the initial assumption ($\alpha > 0$). However, I tried particular cases manually, such as


Limit[(1 + n^3)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions :> a > 0] == 0  

which gave True. Am I going about this in the wrong way?




Answer



For some reasons Limit does not work well with inequalities in assumptions. To see the problem one can try this :


Manipulate[ Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> a == h],
{h, 0, 20}]

it does work well unlike :


Manipulate[ Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> a > h],
{h, 0, 20}]

Since the first way works well, one can find easily (also in more sophisticated examples) appropriate values, e.g.



Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> #] & /@ { a < 8, a == 8, a > 8}


 {0, 1/2, Infinity}

The problem with using Limit with Reduce is rather of more general nature, e.g. :


Reduce[ Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> a == h] == 0, h, Reals]


 False


This is certainly a bug.


On the other hand SumConvergence seems to behave better :


Assuming[a ∈ Reals, SumConvergence[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n]]


  a < 7

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