Open Access

Dominik Gruntz, Wolfram Koepf

• {\newcommand{\C}{{\rm {\mbox{C{\llap{{\vrule height1.52ex}\kern.4em}}}}}} \newcommand{\Z} {{\rm {\mbox{\protect\makebox[.2em][l]{\sf Z}\sf Z}}}} \newcommand{\Maple}{{\sc Maple}} Formal Laurent-Puiseux series of the form \[ f(x)=\sum\limits_{k=k_0}^{\infty}a_{k}x^{k/n} \label{eq:formalLPS} \] with coefficients $a_{k}\in\C\;(k\in\Z)$ are important in many branches of mathematics. \Maple\ supports the computation of {\em truncated\/} series with its {\tt series} command, and through the {\tt powerseries} package infinite series are available. In the latter case, the series is represented as a table of coefficients that have already been determined together with a function for computing additional coefficients. This is known as {\em lazy evaluation\/}. But these tools fail, if one is interested in an explicit formula for the coefficients $a_k$. In this article we will describe the \Maple\ implementation of an algorithm presented in several papers of the second author which computes an {\em exact\/} formal power series of a given function. This procedure will enable the user to reproduce most of the results of the extensive bibliography on series. We will give an overview of the algorithm and then present some parts of it in more detail. This package is available through the \Maple-share library with the name {\tt FPS}. We flavor this procedure with the following example. %\begin{maple} \begin{verbatim}> FormalPowerSeries(sin(x), x=0);\end{verbatim} \begin{samepage} \begin{verbatim} infinity ----- k (2 k + 1) \ (-1) x ) ---------------- / (2 k + 1)! ----- k = 0 \end{verbatim} \end{samepage} }