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How to find a sequence having the following properties:

$\dfrac{A_n}{B_n} \to 0$, but $\dfrac{\log(A_n)}{\log(B_n)} \to 1$ as $n \to \infty$.

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    For $n \ge 2$, let $a_n=n$, and $b_n=n \log n$.2011-09-03

2 Answers 2

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Let $A_n = \exp n^2$, $B_n = \exp (n^2 + n)$.

$ A_n /B_n = \exp (-n) \to 0 $

while

$ \ln A_n / \ln B_n = n^2 / (n^2 + n) = 1 / (1 + n^{-1}) \to 1$


Here's how I arrived at the example, the conditions you wrote down requires that

$ \log_{B_n} A_n = 1 - \epsilon(n) $

where $\epsilon(n) \to 0$. So we write $A_n = (B_n)^{1-\epsilon(n)}$, and realise that the first condition on $A_n/B_n$ requires that $B_n^{-\epsilon(n)} \to 0$, or $\exp (-\epsilon(n) \ln B_n) \to 0$. This means that $\epsilon(n) \ln B_n$ must diverge to infinity, which would be the case if $\ln B_n = \epsilon(n)^{-1 - \delta}$ for any $\delta > 0$.

So if we take any positive function $\epsilon(n)$ with the property that $\lim_{n\to \infty} \epsilon(n) = 0$, and any $\delta > 0$, the sequences

$ B_n = \exp ( \epsilon(n)^{-1 - \delta} ) $

and

$ A_n = B_n^{1 - \epsilon(n)} = \exp ( \epsilon(n)^{-1 - \delta} - \epsilon(n)^{-\delta} ) $

would satisfy the requirement. The example I wrote down is, morally speaking, for the case $\delta = 1$, $\epsilon(n) = n^{-1}$.

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    Thanks a lot for your help :)2011-09-03
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Well, if $a_i = 2^n$ and $b_i = 3^n$, then $\dfrac{\log a_i}{\log b_i} = \dfrac{2}{3}$. Does that give you the inspiration to come up with such a sequence?

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    I had $t$ried this. But couldn't come up with the proper answer.2011-09-03