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11 - The Moment Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2020

Mourad E. H. Ismail
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida
Walter Van Assche
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
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Summary

The moment problem is the characterization of those real sequences that can appear as moment sequences together with the problem of recovering a positive measure from its moments. So given a sequence of real numbers (mn)n we wish to find out if there exists a positive measure μ such that

mn=∫ℝxndμ(x) , n≥0, (11.1.1)

and in the affirmative case to find all such measures. This is the Hamburger moment problem if there is no restriction imposed on the support of μ. One usually normalizes the problem by requiring m0=1. Hamburger proved that a sequence of real numbers (mn)n is a Hamburger moment sequence if and only if the sequence is positive definite in the sense that

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • The Moment Problem
  • Edited by Mourad E. H. Ismail, University of Central Florida
  • Assisted by Walter Van Assche, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
  • Book: Encyclopedia of Special Functions: The Askey-Bateman Project
  • Online publication: 14 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511979156.012
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  • The Moment Problem
  • Edited by Mourad E. H. Ismail, University of Central Florida
  • Assisted by Walter Van Assche, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
  • Book: Encyclopedia of Special Functions: The Askey-Bateman Project
  • Online publication: 14 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511979156.012
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Moment Problem
  • Edited by Mourad E. H. Ismail, University of Central Florida
  • Assisted by Walter Van Assche, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
  • Book: Encyclopedia of Special Functions: The Askey-Bateman Project
  • Online publication: 14 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511979156.012
Available formats
×