A note on extending Euler's connection between continued fractions and power series (Q1298787)

The integer \( n>1 \) being fixed, and \( p(\tau),q(\tau)\) \((1 \leq \tau \leq n) \) being two sequences in \(\mathbb{C}\), define coefficients \( c(\tau)\) \((0 \leq \tau < n) \) by setting \( c(0) = 1/q(1) \) and \( c(\tau) = p(\tau) c(\tau-1) q(\tau+1)\) \((1 \leq \tau < n) \). \( w \) and \( z \) being complex variables, define the partial sum \( S(z|n):= \{\sum c(\tau) z^{\tau}|0 \leq \tau < n \} \), partial numerators \( A(1):=1, A(\tau+1):= -p(\tau) q(\tau) z\) \((1 \leq \tau < n) \), partial denominators \( B(1):= q(1), B(\tau+1):= p(\tau) z + q(\tau)\) \((1 \leq \tau < n) \) and, for \( 1 \leq \tau \leq n \), tails \[ C(w||z|[\tau,n]):= A(\tau)/[B(\tau) + A(\tau+1)/[B(\tau+1) + \] \[ \cdots + A(n-1)/[B(n-1) + A(n)/[B(n) - w]]]] \] of the continued fraction \( C(w||z|[1,n]) \). A relationship of the form \( C(w||z|[1,n]) = S(z|n) + E(w||z|[1,n]) \) is derived, where \( E \) is a function of the tails \( C(w||z|[\tau,n]) \) for \( 1 < \tau \leq n \). When all \( q(\tau)\) \((1 \leq \tau \leq n) \) are equal, the \( E \)-term vanishes and Euler's identity relating convergence of a continued fraction and partial sums of a power series is obtained. Letting \( n \) increase without limit and imposing appropriate convergence conditions, together with \( |q(\tau) - q(\tau-1) |\leq \delta \) for \( \tau \geq 1 \), \( \delta \) being real, a relationship of the form \( C(z) = S(z) + E(z) \) is derived where, in particular, \( C \) and \( S \) denote continued fraction and power series values respectively and, for \( E \), \( |E(z)|\leq C \delta |z|\) where \( C \) is a constant.