Suppose I have some piecewise smooth periodic function $f$.
Why does $f$ need to be bounded in order to have a Fourier series representation? Couldn't we consider the interval that it's unbounded as a finite point of discontinuities?
Suppose I have some piecewise smooth periodic function $f$.
Why does $f$ need to be bounded in order to have a Fourier series representation? Couldn't we consider the interval that it's unbounded as a finite point of discontinuities?
It doesn't have to be bounded. In order to define the Fourier coefficients (using the Lebesgue integral), you do want $f$ to be in $L^1$, i.e. $\int_I |f(x)|\; dx < \infty$ where $I$ is the interval you're using for your Fourier series.