Skip to main content

functions - Get leading series expansion term?


Given a function f[x], I would like to have a function leadingSeries that returns just the leading term in the series around x=0. For example:


leadingSeries[(1/x + 2)/(4 + 1/x^2 + x)]


x



and


leadingSeries[(1/x + 2 + (1 - 1/x^3)/4)/(4 + x)]



-(1/(16 x^3))



Is there such a function in Mathematica? Or maybe one can implement it efficiently?


EDIT


I finally went with the following implementation, based on Carl Woll's answer:


lds[ex_,x_]:=( (ex/.x->(x+O[x]^2))/.SeriesData[U_,Z_,L_List,Mi_,Ma_,De_]:>SeriesData[U,Z,{L[[1]]},Mi,Mi+1,De]//Quiet//Normal)

The advantage is, that this one also properly works with functions whose leading term is a constant:



lds[Exp[x],x]


1




Answer



Update 1


Updated to eliminate SeriesData and to not return additional terms


Perhaps you could use:


leadingSeries[expr_, x_] := Normal[expr /. x->(x+O[x]^2) /. a_List :> Take[a, 1]]


Then for your examples:


leadingSeries[(1/x + 2)/(4 + 1/x^2 + x), x]
leadingSeries[Exp[x], x]
leadingSeries[(1/x + 2 + (1 - 1/x^3)/4)/(4 + x), x] // TeXForm


x


1


$-\frac{1}{16 x^3}$




One more example:


leadingSeries[x^100 (1/x + 2 + (1 - 1/x^2)/4)/(4 + x), x] // TeXForm


$-\frac{x^{98}}{16}$



This last example shows that leadingSeries works even when the leading term has a very high order. Using something like Series[expr, {x, 0, 1}] will not get the leading order, although it does return something that would be useful as a stepping stone towards the answer.


Update 2


Updated to support arbitrary expansion points



Here is a version for arbitrary expansion points:


leadingSeries[expr_, {x_, x0_}] := Normal[
expr /.
x -> Series[x, {x, x0, 1}] /.
Verbatim[SeriesData][a__, {b_, ___}, c__] :> SeriesData[a, {b}, c]
]

For example:


leadingSeries[Gamma[x],{x,Infinity}]//TeXForm



$\sqrt{2 \pi } \sqrt{\frac{1}{x}} e^{x \left(-\log \left(\frac{1}{x}\right)-1\right)}$



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

mathematical optimization - Minimizing using indices, error: Part::pkspec1: The expression cannot be used as a part specification

I want to use Minimize where the variables to minimize are indices pointing into an array. Here a MWE that hopefully shows what my problem is. vars = u@# & /@ Range[3]; cons = Flatten@ { Table[(u[j] != #) & /@ vars[[j + 1 ;; -1]], {j, 1, 3 - 1}], 1 vec1 = {1, 2, 3}; vec2 = {1, 2, 3}; Minimize[{Total@((vec1[[#]] - vec2[[u[#]]])^2 & /@ Range[1, 3]), cons}, vars, Integers] The error I get: Part::pkspec1: The expression u[1] cannot be used as a part specification. >> Answer Ok, it seems that one can get around Mathematica trying to evaluate vec2[[u[1]]] too early by using the function Indexed[vec2,u[1]] . The working MWE would then look like the following: vars = u@# & /@ Range[3]; cons = Flatten@{ Table[(u[j] != #) & /@ vars[[j + 1 ;; -1]], {j, 1, 3 - 1}], 1 vec1 = {1, 2, 3}; vec2 = {1, 2, 3}; NMinimize[ {Total@((vec1[[#]] - Indexed[vec2, u[#]])^2 & /@ R...

What is and isn't a valid variable specification for Manipulate?

I have an expression whose terms have arguments (representing subscripts), like this: myExpr = A[0] + V[1,T] I would like to put it inside a Manipulate to see its value as I move around the parameters. (The goal is eventually to plot it wrt one of the variables inside.) However, Mathematica complains when I set V[1,T] as a manipulated variable: Manipulate[Evaluate[myExpr], {A[0], 0, 1}, {V[1, T], 0, 1}] (*Manipulate::vsform: Manipulate argument {V[1,T],0,1} does not have the correct form for a variable specification. >> *) As a workaround, if I get rid of the symbol T inside the argument, it works fine: Manipulate[ Evaluate[myExpr /. T -> 15], {A[0], 0, 1}, {V[1, 15], 0, 1}] Why this behavior? Can anyone point me to the documentation that says what counts as a valid variable? And is there a way to get Manpiulate to accept an expression with a symbolic argument as a variable? Investigations I've done so far: I tried using variableQ from this answer , but it says V[1...