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Convex function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Convex function
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In mathematics, a real-valued function f(x) defined on an interval is

called convex (or convex downward or concave upward) if the line
segment between any two points on the graph of the function lies above
the graph, in a Euclidean space (or more generally a vector space) of at
least two dimensions. Equivalently, a function is convex if its epigraph
(the set of points on or above the graph of the function) is a convex set.
Well-known examples of convex functions are the quadratic function
and the exponential function
for any real
number x.
Convex functions play an important role in many areas of mathematics.
They are especially important in the study of optimization problems
where they are distinguished by a number of convenient properties. For
instance, a (strictly) convex function on an open set has no more than
one minimum. Even in infinite-dimensional spaces, under suitable
additional hypotheses, convex functions continue to satisfy such
properties and, as a result, they are the most well-understood functionals
in the calculus of variations. In probability theory, a convex function
applied to the expected value of a random variable is always less than or
equal to the expected value of the convex function of the random
variable. This result, known as Jensen's inequality, underlies many
important inequalities (including, for instance, the arithmeticgeometric
mean inequality and Hlder's inequality).

Convex function on an interval.

A function (in black) is convex if and only if the

region above its graph (in green) is a convex set.

Exponential growth is a special case of convexity. Exponential growth

narrowly means "increasing at a rate proportional to the current value", while convex growth generally means "increasing at
an increasing rate (but not necessarily proportionally to current value)".

Contents
1 Definition
2 Properties
3 Convex function calculus
4 Strongly convex functions
4.1 Uniformly convex functions
5 Examples
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links

Definition
Let X be a convex set in a real vector space and let f : X R be a function.

f is called convex if:

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f is called strictly convex if:

A function fis said to be (strictly) concave if f is (strictly) convex.

Properties
Suppose f is a function of one real variable defined on an interval, and let

(note that R(x1, x2) is the slope of the purple line in the above drawing; note also that the function R is symmetric in x1, x2).

fis convex if and only if R(x1, x2) is monotonically non-decreasing in x1, for x2 fixed (or viceversa). This characterization
of convexity is quite useful to prove the following results.
A convex function f defined on some open interval C is continuous on C and Lipschitz continuous on any closed
subinterval. f admits left and right derivatives, and these are monotonically non-decreasing. As a consequence, fis
differentiable at all but at most countably many points. If C is closed, then fmay fail to be continuous at the endpoints of C
(an example is shown in the examples' section).
A function is midpoint convex on an interval C if

This condition is only slightly weaker than convexity. For example, a real valued Lebesgue measurable function that is
midpoint convex will be convex by Sierpinski Theorem.[1] In particular, a continuous function that is midpoint convex will
be convex.
A differentiable function of one variable is convex on an interval if and only if its derivative is monotonically nondecreasing on that interval. If a function is differentiable and convex then it is also continuously differentiable. For the basic
case of a differentiable function from (a subset of) the real numbers to the real numbers, "convex" is equivalent to
"increasing at an increasing rate".
A continuously differentiable function of one variable is convex on an interval if and only if the function lies above all of its
tangents:[2]:69

for all x and y in the interval. In particular, if f(c) = 0, then c is a global minimum of f(x).
A twice differentiable function of one variable is convex on an interval if and only if its second derivative is non-negative
there; this gives a practical test for convexity. Visually, a twice differentiable convex function "curves up", without any
bends the other way (inflection points). If its second derivative is positive at all points then the function is strictly convex,
but the converse does not hold. For example, the second derivative of f(x) = x4 is f (x) = 12x2, which is zero for x = 0, but x4
is strictly convex.
More generally, a continuous, twice differentiable function of several variables is convex on a convex set if and only if its
Hessian matrix is positive semidefinite on the interior of the convex set.
Any local minimum of a convex function is also a global minimum. A strictly convex function will have at most one global
minimum.

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For a convex function f, the sublevel sets {x | f(x) < a} and {x | f(x) a} with a R are convex sets. However, a function
whose sublevel sets are convex sets may fail to be a convex function. A function whose sublevel sets are convex is called a
quasiconvex function.
Jensen's inequality applies to every convex function f. If X is a random variable taking values in the domain of f, then

E(f(X)) f(E(X)). (Here E denotes the mathematical expectation.)

If a function fis convex, and f(0) 0, then fis superadditive on the positive half-axis.
Proof: Since fis convex, let y = 0, then:

From this we have:

Convex function calculus

If f and g are convex functions, then so are

and

If f and g are convex functions and g is non-decreasing, then

convex, then so is

, because

is convex. As an example, if f(x) is

is convex and monotonically increasing.

If f is concave and g is convex and non-increasing, then

is convex.

Convexity is invariant under affine maps: that is, if f(x) is convex with

, then so is

where
If f(x, y) is convex in x then

is convex in x provided

for some x, even if C is

not convex.
If f(x, y) is convex in (x, y) and C is a nonempty convex set then

is convex in x provided

for some x.
If f(x) is convex, then its perspective

(whose domain is

) is

convex.
The additive inverse of a convex function is a concave function.

Strongly convex functions

The concept of strong convexity extends and parametrizes the notion of strict convexity. A strongly convex function is also
strictly convex, but not vice-versa.
A differentiable function f is called strongly convex with parameter m > 0 if the following inequality holds for all points

x, y in its domain:[3]

or, more generally,

where

is any norm. Some authors, such as [4] refer to functions satisfying this inequality as elliptic functions.

An equivalent condition is the following:[5]

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It is not necessary for a function to be differentiable in order to be strongly convex. A third definition[5] for a strongly
convex function, with parameter m, is that, for all x, y in the domain and
,

Notice that this definition approaches the definition for strict convexity as m 0, and is identical to the definition of a
convex function when m = 0. Despite this, functions exist that are strictly convex but are not strongly convex for any m > 0
(see example below).
If the function fis twice continuously differentiable, then fis strongly convex with parameter m if and only if
for all x in the domain, where I is the identity and
is the Hessian matrix, and the inequality
means that
is positive semi-definite. This is equivalent to requiring that the minimum eigenvalue of
be at least m for all x. If the domain is just the real line, then
is just the second derivative
, so the
condition becomes
. If m = 0, then this means the Hessian is positive semidefinite (or if the domain is the real
line, it means that
), which implies the function is convex, and perhaps strictly convex, but not strongly convex.
Assuming still that the function is twice continuously differentiable, one can show that the lower bound of
that it is strongly convex. Start by using Taylor's Theorem:

for some (unknown)

implies

. Then

by the assumption about the eigenvalues, and hence we recover the second strong convexity equation above.
A function f is strongly convex with parameter m if and only if the function

is convex.

The distinction between convex, strictly convex, and strongly convex can be subtle at first glimpse. If fis twice continuously
differentiable and the domain is the real line, then we can characterize it as follows:

f convex if and only if

for all x.
f strictly convex if
for all x (note: this is sufficient, but not necessary).
f strongly convex if and only if
for all x.
For example, consider a function f that is strictly convex, and suppose there is a sequence of points
. Even though

the function is not strongly convex because

such that

will become arbitrarily

small.
A twice continuously differentiable function fon a compact domain
that satisfies
for all
is strongly
convex. The proof of this statement follows from the extreme value theorem, which states that a continuous function on a
compact set has a maximum and minimum.
Strongly convex functions are in general easier to work with than convex or strictly convex functions, since they are a
smaller class. Like strictly convex functions, strongly convex functions have unique minima.

Uniformly convex functions

A uniformly convex function,[6][7] with modulus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_function

, is a function fthat, for all x, y in the domain and t [0, 1], satisfies
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where

Convex function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

is a function that is increasing and vanishes only at 0. This is a generalization of the concept of strongly convex

function; by taking

we recover the definition of strong convexity.

Examples
The function

at all points, so fis a convex function. It is also strongly convex (and

has

hence strictly convex too), with strong convexity constant 2.

The function

, so fis a convex function. It is strictly convex, even though the

has

second derivative is not strictly positive at all points. It is not strongly convex.
The absolute value function

is convex (as reflected in the triangle inequality), even though it does not

have a derivative at the point x = 0. It is not strictly convex.

for 1 p is convex.

The function
The exponential function

is convex. It is also strictly convex, since

, but it is not

strongly convex since the second derivative can be arbitrarily close to zero. More generally, the function
is logarithmically convex if fis a convex function. The term "superconvex" is sometimes used
instead.[8]
The function fwith domain [0,1] defined by f(0) = f(1) = 1, f(x) = 0 for 0 < x < 1 is convex; it is continuous on the
open interval (0, 1), but not continuous at 0 and 1.
The function x3 has second derivative 6x; thus it is convex on the set where x 0 and concave on the set where x 0.
The function

on the domain of positive-definite matrices is convex.[2]:74

Every real-valued linear transformation is convex but not strictly convex, since if fis linear, then
This statement also holds if we replace "convex" by "concave".
Every real-valued affine function, i.e., each function of the form

, is simultaneously convex and

concave.
Every norm is a convex function, by the triangle inequality and positive homogeneity.
Examples of functions that are monotonically increasing but not convex include
Examples of functions that are convex but not monotonically increasing include
The function f(x) = 1/x has

and g(x) = log(x).

and

which is greater than 0 if x > 0, so f(x) is convex on the interval (0, +). It

is concave on the interval (, 0).

The function f(x) = x2, with f(0) = +, is convex on the interval (0, +) and convex on the interval (-,0), but not
convex on the interval (-, +), because of the singularity at x = 0.

See also
Concave function
Convex optimization
Convex conjugate
Geodesic convexity
Kachurovskii's theorem, which relates convexity to monotonicity of the derivative
Logarithmically convex function
Pseudoconvex function
Quasiconvex function
Invex function
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Subderivative of a convex function

Jensen's inequality
Karamata's inequality
HermiteHadamard inequality

Notes
1. ^ Donoghue, William F. (1969). Distributions and Fourier Transforms (http://books.google.com/books?
id=P30Y7daiGvQC&pg=PA12). Academic Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780122206504. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
2. ^ a b Boyd, Stephen P.; Vandenberghe, Lieven (2004). Convex Optimization
(http://www.stanford.edu/~boyd/cvxbook/bv_cvxbook.pdf) (pdf). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83378-3.
Retrieved October 15, 2011.
3. ^ Dimitri Bertsekas (2003). Convex Analysis and Optimization. Contributors: Angelia Nedic and Asuman E. Ozdaglar. Athena
Scientific. p. 72. ISBN 9781886529458.
4. ^ Philippe G. Ciarlet (1989). Introduction to numerical linear algebra and optimisation. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 9780521339841.
5. ^ a b Yurii Nesterov (2004). Introductory Lectures on Convex Optimization: A Basic Course. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
pp. 6364. ISBN 9781402075537.
6. ^ C. Zalinescu (2002). Convex Analysis in General Vector Spaces. World Scientific. ISBN 9812380671.
7. ^ H. Bauschke and P. L. Combettes (2011). Convex Analysis and Monotone Operator Theory in Hilbert Spaces. Springer. p. 144.
ISBN 978-1-4419-9467-7.
8. ^ Kingman, J. F. C. (1961). "A Convexity Property of Positive Matrices". The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics 12: 283284.
doi:10.1093/qmath/12.1.283 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2Fqmath%2F12.1.283).

References
Bertsekas, Dimitri (2003). Convex Analysis and Optimization. Athena Scientific.
Borwein, Jonathan, and Lewis, Adrian. (2000). Convex Analysis and Nonlinear Optimization. Springer.
Donoghue, William F. (1969). Distributions and Fourier Transforms. Academic Press.
Hiriart-Urruty, Jean-Baptiste, and Lemarchal, Claude. (2004). Fundamentals of Convex analysis. Berlin: Springer.
Krasnosel'skii M.A., Rutickii Ya.B. (1961). Convex Functions and Orlicz Spaces. Groningen: P.Noordhoff Ltd.
Lauritzen, Niels (2013). Undergraduate Convexity. World Scientific Publishing.
Luenberger, David (1984). Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Addison-Wesley.
Luenberger, David (1969). Optimization by Vector Space Methods. Wiley & Sons.
Rockafellar, R. T. (1970). Convex analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Thomson, Brian (1994). Symmetric Properties of Real Functions. CRC Press.
Zlinescu, C. (2002). Convex analysis in general vector spaces. River Edge, NJ: World Scientific Publishing
Co., Inc. pp. xx+367. ISBN 981-238-067-1. MR 1921556 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1921556).

External links
Stephen Boyd and Lieven Vandenberghe, Convex Optimization (http://www.stanford.edu/~boyd/cvxbook/) (PDF)
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Convex function (of a real variable)"
(http://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=p/c026240), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Convex function (of a complex variable)"
(http://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=p/c026230), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4

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Categories: Types of functions Convex analysis Generalized convexity
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