TITLE: Pointwise, uniformly and absolute convergence of Fourier series
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: I'd really love your help with this one:
I got this Fourier series for $f(x)=x$ in $[-\pi,\pi]$: $$\sum_{1}^{\infty}\frac{2(-1)^{n+1}\sin(nx)}{n}$$ and I need to check if it's (i) pointwise converges,(ii) uniformly converges and if (iii) $$\sum_{1}^{\infty}\left|\frac{2(-1)^{n+1}\sin(nx)}{n}\right|$$ converges.. I tried to do it, and I have couple of specific questions that interrupt me.
(i) Can I claim that the series is pointwise due to Leibniz test? since $\frac{\sin(nx)}{n} \to 0$? I was told that I need to use Lipschitz continuity here. How do I use it?
(ii) I was told that this series is not uniformly converges since $f(x)$ is not continuous in this part. How come? Is it because we always see those functions who we compute their Fourier series as periodic functions with period of $[0,2\pi]$ so in our case the function in $0$ is not continues?
(iii) How come I can't use Dirichlet test for series and claim that the $$\sum_{1}^{\infty}\left|\frac{2(-1)^{n+1}\sin(nx)}n\right|$$ does converges? The test requires a multiple of a series that monotonic converges to $0$ and $\sum_{1}^{N}|\sin(nx)|<M$? Is it wrong? How can you prove that this series does not converge? 
Thanks you so much guys!

REPLY [3 votes]: Something that might prove applicable is the Dirichlet Convergence Test. Summation by Parts yields
$$
\sum_{k=1}^na_kb_k=A_nb_n+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1}A_k(b_k-b_{k+1})\tag{1}
$$
where $\displaystyle A_n=\sum_{k=1}^na_k$. Note that $(-1)^{n+1}\sin(nx)=-\sin(n(\pi+x))$, so we have
$$
\begin{align}
A_n
&=\sum_{k=1}^n(-1)^{n+1}\sin(kx)\\
&=-\sum_{k=1}^n\sin(k(\pi+x))\\
&=\frac{\sin(n(\pi+x)/2)}{\sin((\pi+x)/2)}\sin((n+1)(\pi+x)/2)\tag{2}
\end{align}
$$
Thus, $|A_n|\le|\sec(x/2)|$. Therefore,
(i) according to $(1)$ and $(2)$, the series converges pointwise except at odd multiples of $\pi$; however, at any multiple of $\pi$, each term is $0$.  Thus, the series converges for all $x$.
(ii) according to $(1)$ and $(2)$, the series converges uniformly on compact sets not containing an odd multiple of $\pi$. A sequence of continuous functions cannot converge uniformly to a discontinuous function, so the convergence cannot be uniform in any neighborhood of an odd multiple of $\pi$.
(iii) except at multiples of $\pi$, the series is not absolutely convergent. Here is the outline of a proof.
First, show that if $x$ is not a multiple of $\pi$, at least $1/4$ of the multiples of $x$ have $|\sin(kx)|>1/\sqrt{2}$. Because $|\sin(k(x+n\pi))|=|\sin(kx)|$, we only need to consider $x\in[-\pi/2,\pi/2]$.  Since $|\sin(-kx)|=|\sin(kx)|$, we only need to consider $x\in[0,\pi/2]$.
If $x\in[\pi/(n+1),\pi/n]$, then at least $\lfloor n/2\rfloor$ multiples of $x$ are in $[(m+1/4)\pi,(m+3/4)\pi]$ out of at most $n+1$ in $[m\pi,(m+1)\pi]$. Since $(0,\pi/2]=\cup_{n=2}^\infty[\pi/(n+1),\pi/n]$, this means that at least $1/4$ of the multiples of $x$ in $[m\pi,(m+1)\pi]$ are in $[(m+1/4)\pi,(m+3/4)\pi]$, and therefore, have $|\sin(kx)|>1/\sqrt{2}$.
Thus, $1/4$ of each $n$ to $n+1$ consecutive terms of the sum have $|\sin(kx)|>1/\sqrt{2}$. The sum is therefore greater than
$$
\frac{1}{4}\sum_{k=n+1}^\infty\frac{2}{k}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\tag{3}
$$
which diverges. Thus, if $x$ is not a multiple of $\pi$, the series of absolute values diverges.