Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
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Source. Algorithm 3.1 and the verification after it, preprint p. 6; the abstract and the introduction, pp. 1--2. Read on the rendered pages.
Statement
Algorithm 3.1 (p. 6) takes a monotonically non-decreasing sequence of positive integers such that converges, and a real number . It sets and , and defines, for ,
The verification on the same page shows that every is defined and lies in and that
So every real number in , rational or not, is the value of such a series with all denominators in .
Why it works (p. 6)
Since , the starting value lies in . The choice of puts in . Since and the monotonicity of gives , the new value falls again in . The partial sums differ from by , which is at most the tail of , and so tends to .
In the paper
The abstract announces the result for "every monotonic sequence " with a rational value of the series, and the introduction (p. 2) for any monotonic sequence of positive integers with "a wanted value in a prescribed interval"; the algorithm as printed treats non-decreasing sequences with convergent. The introduction uses it to show that "Some growth condition on and is needed" for criteria of the kind the paper proves, in which the sum is irrational unless is eventually constant. The Remark before it (p. 6) gives the case : uncountably many bounded sequences with .
Relation to problem 251
With , the -th prime, the series is the constant of problem 251, and the case of the algorithm returns for every . Every other number of , among them infinitely many rationals, is for some sequence with all ; such a sequence is bounded and is not covered by the growth conditions of Theorem 5.1 or Theorem 6.1. The algorithm says nothing about whether itself is rational.
Bears on. #251 (context: the problem's constant is the right end of the interval; every other value in it, rationals included, is a sum of with all in ; nothing about the constant itself).