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My question is about this fun video. In the video, the person claims to find the power series representation for $e^x$ by using the fact that it is an eigenstate of the integration operator. However, after this initial step, he makes a series of moves that I have no idea whether are justified:

\begin{align} e^x&=\int e^xdx\\ e^x&=\int e^x\\ e^x-\int e^x&=0\\ (1-\int)e^x&=0\\ e^x&=(1-\int)^{-1}0\\ e^x&=\sum_{k=0}^\infty \int^k 0\\ e^x&=\sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{1}{k!}x^k \end{align}

He claims that everything he does can be made rigorous, presumably through functional analysis. Is he right, and if so, could someone spell out his argument rigorously?

Frederik vom Ende
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Damalone
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    Please state the actual question in your post, rather than merely linking to the video and referencing it. – user3716267 Jun 02 '24 at 06:12
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    I cannot imagine this can be justified. If $e^x$ is an eigenvector of $\int$ in some space (with eigenvalue $1$), then $1 - \int$ is not invertible in that space, so $(1 - \int)^{-1}$ makes no sense. Even if it did, $ce^{-x}$ would also be an eigenvector with eigenvalue $1$, for any constant $c$. Why should one obtain the power series for $e^x$ instead of, say, $-e^x$ from this? – David Gao Jun 02 '24 at 06:42
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    A similar question: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4871850/a-very-odd-resolution-to-an-integral-equation. – Gonçalo Jun 02 '24 at 06:45
  • @Gonçalo This is a clever reframing. I suppose $f = \int f$ cannot work, but $f - \int f = 1$ can. – David Gao Jun 02 '24 at 06:50

1 Answers1

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I’ll summarize the comments and add some additional details here:

As is, the argument makes no sense. Whatever space we’re working with, whatever $\int$ means precisely (recall that antiderivative is not uniquely defined, so the operator is not truly specified), as long as $\int$ has an eigenvector (say, $e^x$) with eigenvalue $1$, then $1 - \int$ is not invertible, so $(1 - \int)^{-1}$ does not make sense. Even if it does, any $ce^x$ for a constant $c$ would be an eigenvector with eigenvalue $1$, so it is not possible to obtain the power series for $e^x$ instead of, say $-e^x$, this way.

But as the question linked in Gonçalo’s comment illustrates, this can be fixed by specifying $\int$ as $\int_0^x$, i.e., $[\int f](x) = \int_0^x f$. Then $e^x$ is the unique function $f$ satisfying $(1 - \int)f = f - \int f = 1$. We can obtain the power series expansion around $0$ of $e^x$ (which, as we know, has radius of convergence $\infty$, though the method only guarantees a radius of convergence of at least $1$) using this. Indeed, for any $0 < \epsilon < 1$. Consider the space $C[-\epsilon, \epsilon]$. Then $\int$ may be understood as an operator from $C[-\epsilon, \epsilon]$ to itself, and one may easily check the norm of operator is $\epsilon < 1$. Whence, $1 - \int$ is invertible with inverse $(1 - \int)^{-1} = \sum_{n = 0}^\infty \int^n$. Thus,

$$e^x = (1 - \int)^{-1} 1 = \sum_{n = 0}^\infty \int^n 1 = \sum_{n = 0}^\infty \frac{1}{n!} x^n$$

Where the convergence is uniform on $[-\epsilon, \epsilon]$ for any $0 < \epsilon < 1$. (Again, in actuality we know that the convergence is uniform on any bounded interval, but this method only proves this for $\epsilon < 1$ instead of an arbitrarily large $\epsilon$.)

David Gao
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    Severe deja vu with this question :) Anyway, as you said, this specific phrasing of course only works for $0<\epsilon <1$, but the statement hold more generally (I even wrote out the details in my answer in the link). – peek-a-boo Jun 02 '24 at 07:35
  • @peek-a-boo Yeah. I feel an answer to this specific question is still justified, though, since the OP specifically asked whether the argument contained in the post works. It does not, at least as is. It certainly can be tweaked to work, with Jair Taylor’s argument for $0 < \epsilon < 1$ and your argument more generally. But all those already require a tweaking of the argument OP included in the post. – David Gao Jun 02 '24 at 07:57
  • Thanks!! Just wanted to point out a small typo. You might have meant that the norm is $\epsilon<1$ instead of $\epsilon<0$. Also, in terms of the non-invertibility of an operator at an eigenvalue, I would appreciate it if you take a look at my other question here: link – Damalone Jun 02 '24 at 19:00
  • @BenLou I’ve just edited to fix the typo. – David Gao Jun 02 '24 at 19:03