Can we always establish whether an infinite series converges or diverges?

I'm not sure whether this is what you want or not. Consider the series $\displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n$, with$$a_n=\begin{cases}1&\text{ if }2^n-1\text{ is prime}\\0&\text{ otherwise.}\end{cases}$$It is not known whether it converges or not.


Just for fun, whatever foundational system $S$ you are working in, as long as $S$ can handle basic arithmetic, here is a series that $S$ (and hence you) cannot prove that it converges, and you hope $S$ never proves that it diverges! $ \def\nn{\mathbb{N}} $

Let $f : \nn \to \nn$ such that for each natural $n$, we have $f(n) = 1$ if there is a proof over $S$ of length at most $n$ of a contradiction, and $f(n) = 0$ otherwise.

Then $S$ cannot prove that $\sum_{n=0}^\infty f(n)$ converges (otherwise $S$ proves itself consistent, which contradicts Godel's incompleteness theorem).

And $S$ had better not prove that $\sum_{n=0}^\infty f(n)$ diverges (otherwise $S$ proves itself inconsistent).

A rather curious fact (if one has never seen the incompleteness phenomenon before) is that, if $S$ is consistent, then $S$ can actually prove that $f(0) = 0$ and $f(1) = 0$ and $f(1+1) = 0$ and so on, but cannot prove "$\forall n \in \nn\ ( f(n) = 0 )$".

One can improve this, via something equivalent to Rosser's trick, to obtain a series that $S$ (and hence you) cannot prove or disprove whether it converges!


In general, any question of the form "Is it always possible to determine (prove or disprove) whether an object in collection $C$ satisfies property $P$?" is likely to have "no" as the answer if you can use $P$ on suitable members of $C$ to determine whether any given sentence over $S$ is provable or not.