Absolute convergence

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In mathematics, an infinite series of numbers is said to converge absolutely (or to be absolutely convergent) if the sum of the absolute values of the summands is finite. More precisely, a real or complex series ${\displaystyle \textstyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }a_{n}}$ is said to converge absolutely if ${\displaystyle \textstyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\left|a_{n}\right|=L}$ for some real number ${\displaystyle \textstyle L.}$ Similarly, an improper integral of a function, ${\displaystyle \textstyle \int _{0}^{\infty }f(x)\,dx,}$ is said to converge absolutely if the integral of the absolute value of the integrand is finite—that is, if ${\displaystyle \textstyle \int _{0}^{\infty }|f(x)|dx=L.}$ A convergent series that is not absolutely convergent is called conditionally convergent.

Absolute convergence is important for the study of infinite series, because its definition guarantees that a series will have some "nice" behaviors of finite sums that not all convergent series possess. For instance, rearrangements do not change the value of the sum, which is not necessarily true for conditionally convergent series.