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I am an undergraduate in Mathematics, almost finishing the degree. Treatment of summations (sigma notation) has always bothered me, since in most cases we can convince ourselves that their manipulation should be true without caring much for rigour; for example, in certain changes of index we can "draw tables" and convince ourselves that they are true, or for certain properties we can just look at specific examples and then convince ourselves it work in the general case, etc. but I couldn't find a good, exhaustive source that presents them rigorously.

Can anyone please recommend books or notes that treat summations (maybe like in just one chapter or section, not necesarily a whole book about them, although if that exists it would be gladly welcomed) from the bottom up, basing itself on the formal recurrence definition of summation and rigorously proving is properties and identities?

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  • $\begingroup$ What sort of manipulations are you talking about? Things like $c\sum_{k=1}^n a_k = \sum_{k=1}^n ca_k$? $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 15:50
  • $\begingroup$ @Randall Precisely. Although that is a basic manipulation, but things of the sort, starting from those basics and building up. Things like changing indices, also things like the "double counting rule" or even well-known identities about double summations (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iverson_bracket#Examples). Things like generalization of notation for summation by having (x in A) as subscript since summations are independent of chosen order, stuff like that. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ Instead of looking for books treating the basics of summations, why not take this as a golden opportunity to work through things yourself from the definitions? It might be tedious, but it’ll be good tedious. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 16:05
  • $\begingroup$ @Aruralreader I have done so for some of the more basic properties, but as for more complicated ones involving things like manipulating double summations or turning double summations into a single summation for example I can't seem to tackle them. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 16:17
  • $\begingroup$ @AgustinG: You can do it, others have. What a great way to use and build your creativity! $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 16:19

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This is not an answer to your question, but I think this message is very important to say to you, as you mentioned you are an undergraduate interested in mathematics.

My biggest recommendation is to make math interesting. For example, we use a summation rule, $$ \sum_{i\in I} (f(i) + g(i)) = \sum_{i\in I} f(i) + \sum_{i\in I} g(i) $$ You can ask, how to formally define a (finite) sum over a set of real numbers, and then how to formally justify such an operation. But is that really interesting? You just proved something you always knew to be true, you just proved it in a more rigorous manner. It still seems fairly boring.

As an alternative, you can use (infinite) summations to prove Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic sequences. This is actually interesting, surprising, and has a long of interesting mathematics along the way that appears throughout number theory.

I noticed that people make a huge mistake when first studying real numbers. They wonder why $a+b = b+a$, whenever $a,b\in \mathbb{R}$. Then they realize they need to define $\mathbb{R}$, rigorously, afterwards they need to define $+$, and proceed to prove that. All of that could be done, but in the end, it does not accomplish anything you did not know before. All you are doing is holding yourself back from getting to the interesting world of analysis. Most people give-up on analysis before they can even get past the real numbers. I think if people just adopted the intuitive view of the reals, and immediately started with analysis, they would be motivated to keep on learning it.

Therefore, my recommendation for you, as an undergraduate, you want to find something interesting in mathematics. Start working on that topic, and instead of trying to understanding everything all at once, you rather focus on learning material you find surprising. You only have a limited amount of time, and you will become a better mathematician by going-forward than by holding yourself back.

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  • $\begingroup$ I appreciate you answer :) . You are right in what you are saying, sometimes I have too noticed myself getting lost in trying to "formalize" everything and that can hold me back, as you mention. At the same time, I got into mathematics precisely because of the fact that, as I like to say, maths is "airtight". Once I get I grasp conceptually or intuitive about why something should hold, I really want to make sure I can prove it rigorously. Maybe I just have to find a good balance. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 16:20
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    $\begingroup$ @AgustinG. My further advice is, as you get better in mathematics, you will personally be able to formalize much of the questions you had before. Speaking from experience, there were many theorems I never knew how to prove, but many years later I came up with my own proofs of them when I wondered about them again. But in order to "get better" in mathematics, you need to keep on moving. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ +1 for the frame change, which the OP seems to understand. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5 at 19:55

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