Summation

In mathematics, summation is the addition of a

sequence of any kind of numbers, called addends or
summands; the result is their sum or total. Beside
numbers, other types of values can be summed as
well: functions, vectors, matrices, polynomials and, in
general, elements of any type of mathematical objects
on which an operation denoted "+" is defined.
Summations of infinite sequences are called series.
They involve the concept of limit, and are not
considered in this article.

The summation of an explicit sequence is denoted as a

succession of additions. For example, summation of
[1, 2, 4, 2] is denoted 1 + 2 + 4 + 2, and results in
9, that is, 1 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 9. Because addition is
associative and commutative, there is no need of
parentheses, and the result does not depend on the
order of the summands. Summation of a sequence of
only one element results in this element itself.
Summation of an empty sequence (a sequence with
zero element) results, by convention, in 0.
Very often, the elements of a sequence are defined,
through regular pattern, as a function of their place in
the sequence. For simple patterns, summation of long
sequences may be represented with most summands
replaced by ellipses. For example, summation of the
first 100 natural numbers may be written
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ⋅⋅⋅ + 99 + 100. Otherwise,
summation is denoted by using Σ notation, where
is an enlarged capital Greek letter sigma. For example,
the sum of the first n natural integers is denoted

For long summations, and summations of variable

length (defined with ellipses or Σ notation), it is a
common problem to find closed-form expressions for
the result. For example,[a]
Although such formulas do not always exist, many
summation formulas have been discovered. Some of
the most common and elementary ones are listed in
this article.

Notation

Capital-sigma notation E…

The summation symbol

Mathematical notation uses a symbol that compactly
represents summation of many similar terms: the
summation symbol, , an enlarged form of the
upright capital Greek letter Sigma. This is defined as:

where i represents the index of summation; ai is an

indexed variable representing each successive term in
the series; m is the lower bound of summation, and n is
the upper bound of summation. The "i = m" under the
summation symbol means that the index i starts out
equal to m. The index, i, is incremented by 1 for each
successive term, stopping when i = n.[b]

Here is an example showing the summation of squares:

Informal writing sometimes omits the definition of the
index and bounds of summation when these are clear
from context, as in:

One often sees generalizations of this notation in

which an arbitrary logical condition is supplied, and the
sum is intended to be taken over all values satisfying
the condition. Here are some common examples:
is the sum of over all (integers) in the
specified range,

is the sum of over all elements in the set ,

and

is the sum of over all positive integers

dividing .[c]

There are also ways to generalize the use of many

sigma signs. For example,
is the same as

A similar notation is applied when it comes to

denoting the product of a sequence, which is similar to
its summation, but which uses the multiplication
operation instead of addition (and gives 1 for an empty
sequence instead of 0). The same basic structure is
used, with , an enlarged form of the Greek capital
letter Pi, replacing the .

Special cases E…
It is possible to sum fewer than 2 numbers:

If the summation has one summand , then the

evaluated sum is .
If the summation has no summands, then the
evaluated sum is zero, because zero is the identity
for addition. This is known as the empty sum.

These degenerate cases are usually only used when

the summation notation gives a degenerate result in a
special case. For example, if in the definition
above, then there is only one term in the sum; if
, then there is none.

Formal definition
Summation may be defined recursively as follows
 , for b < a.

, for b ≥ a.

Measure theory notation

In the notation of measure and integration theory, a
sum can be expressed as a definite integral,

where is the subset of the integers from to

, and where is the counting measure.

Calculus of finite differences

Given a function f that is defined over the integers in
the interval [m, n], one has

This is the analogue in calculus of finite differences of

the fundamental theorem of calculus, which states

where

is the derivative of f.
An example of application of the above equation is

Using binomial theorem, this may be rewritten

The above formula is more commonly used for

inverting of the difference operator defined by

where f is a function defined on the nonnegative

integers. Thus, given such a function f, the problem is
to compute the antidifference of f, that is, a function
 such that , that is,
This function is
defined up to the addition of a constant, and may be
chosen as[1]

There is not always a closed-form expression for such

a summation, but Faulhaber's formula provides a
closed form in the case of and, by
linearity for every polynomial function of n.

Approximation by definite
integrals
Many such approximations can be obtained by the
following connection between sums and integrals,
which holds for any:

increasing function f:

decreasing function f:

For more general approximations, see the Euler–

Maclaurin formula.
For summations in which the summand is given (or can
be interpolated) by an integrable function of the index,
the summation can be interpreted as a Riemann sum
occurring in the definition of the corresponding
definite integral. One can therefore expect that for
instance

since the right hand side is by definition the limit for

  of the left hand side. However, for a given
summation n is fixed, and little can be said about the
error in the above approximation without additional
assumptions about f: it is clear that for wildly
oscillating functions the Riemann sum can be
arbitrarily far from the Riemann integral.

Identities
The formulae below involve finite sums; for infinite
summations or finite summations of expressions
involving trigonometric functions or other
transcendental functions, see list of mathematical
series.

General identities E…

(distributivity)
 

(commutativity and associativity)

  (index

shift)
  for a

bijection σ from a finite set A onto a set B (index

change); this generalizes the preceding formula.
 

(splitting a sum, using associativity)

 

(a variant of the preceding formula)

 

(commutativity and associativity, again)

 

(another application of commutativity and

associativity)
 

(splitting a sum into its odd and even parts, and

changing the indices)
 

(distributivity)
 

(distributivity allows factorization)

  (the

logarithm of a product is the sum of the logarithms

of the factors)
  (the exponential

of a sum is the product of the exponential of the

summands)
Powers and logarithm of arithmetic E…

progressions

  for every c that does not

depend on i
  (Sum

of the simplest arithmetic progression, consisting

of the n first natural numbers.)[2]
  (Sum of first odd

natural numbers)
  (Sum of first

even natural numbers)

   (A sum of

logarithms is the logarithm of the product)

 

(Sum of the first squares, see square pyramidal

number.) [2]
 

(Nicomachus's theorem) [2]

More generally,

 
where   denotes a Bernoulli number (that is
Faulhaber's formula).

Summation index in exponents E…

In the following summations, a is assumed to be

different from 1.

  (sum of a geometric

progression)
  (special case for

a = 1/2)
  

(a times the derivative with respect to a of the

geometric progression)
 

(sum of an arithmetico–geometric sequence)

Binomial coefficients and factorials E…

There exist very many summation identities involving
binomial coefficients (a whole chapter of Concrete
Mathematics is devoted to just the basic techniques).
Some of the most basic ones are the following.

Involving the binomial theorem E…

  the

binomial theorem
  the special case where

a=b=1
  , the special

case where p = a = 1 – b, which, for

   expresses the sum of the binomial
distribution
  the value at

a = b = 1 of the derivative with respect to a of

the binomial theorem
  the value at

a = b = 1 of the antiderivative with respect to a

of the binomial theorem
Involving permutation numbers E…

In the following summations,   is the number of k-

permutations of n.
  

, where and   denotes the floor function.

Others E…

 
  

Harmonic numbers E…

  (that is the nth harmonic

number)
  (that is a generalized harmonic

number)

Growth rates
The following are useful approximations (using theta
notation):

  for real c greater than −1

  (See Harmonic number)

  for real c greater than 1

  for non-

negative real c
 

for non-negative real c, d

  

for non-negative real b > 1, c, d

See also
Einstein notation
Iverson bracket
Iterated binary operation
Kahan summation algorithm
Products of sequences
Product (mathematics)

Notes
a. For details, see Triangular number.
b. For a detailed exposition on summation
notation, and arithmetic with sums, see
Graham, Ronald L.; Knuth, Donald E.; Patashnik,
Oren (1994). "Chapter 2: Sums". Concrete
Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer
Science (PDF) (2nd ed.). Addison-Wesley
Professional. ISBN 978-0201558029.
c. Although the name of the dummy variable does
not matter (by definition), one usually uses
letters from the middle of the alphabet ( 
through   ) to denote integers, if there is a risk
of confusion. For example, even if there should
be no doubt about the interpretation, it could
look slightly confusing to many mathematicians
to see instead of in the above formulae
 involving . See also typographical conventions
in mathematical formulae.

Sources
1. Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial
Mathematics, Kenneth H. Rosen, John G.
Michaels, CRC Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8493-0149-
1.
2. CRC, p 52

External links
Media related to Summation at Wikimedia
Commons
"Summation" . PlanetMath.
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