Paper detail

Constructive aspects of Riemann's permutation theorem for series

The notions of permutable and weak-permutable convergence of a series $\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}a_{n}$ of real numbers are introduced. Classically, these two notions are equivalent, and, by Riemann's two main theorems on the convergence of series, a convergent series is permutably convergent if and only if it is absolutely convergent. Working within Bishop-style constructive mathematics, we prove that Ishihara's principle \BDN implies that every permutably convergent series is absolutely convergent. Since there are models of constructive mathematics in which the Riemann permutation theorem for series holds but \BDN does not, the best we can hope for as a partial converse to our first theorem is that the absolute convergence of series with a permutability property classically equivalent to that of Riemann implies \BDN. We show that this is the case when the property is weak-permutable convergence.