In mathematics, the limit inferior and limit superior of a sequence can be thought of as limiting (i.e., eventual and extreme) bounds on the sequence. They can be thought of in a similar fashion for a function (see limit of a function). For a set, they are the infimum and supremum of the set's limit points, respectively. In general, when there are multiple objects around which a sequence, function, or set accumulates, the inferior and superior limits extract the smallest and largest of them; the type of object and the measure of size is context-dependent, but the notion of extreme limits is invariant.
Limit inferior is also called infimum limit, limit infimum, liminf, inferior limit, lower limit, or inner limit; limit superior is also known as supremum limit, limit supremum, limsup, superior limit, upper limit, or outer limit.
The limit inferior of a sequence
x
n
{\displaystyle x_{n}}
is denoted by
lim inf
n
→
∞
x
n
or
lim
_
n
→
∞
x
n
.
{\displaystyle \liminf _{n\to \infty }x_{n}\quad {\text{or}}\quad \varliminf _{n\to \infty }x_{n}.}
The limit superior of a sequence