1.3.9 The Hessian and Concavity
We can also use compositions to update our theorems about second derivatives and concavity.
Theorem 1.39 [Multivariable Version of Theorem 1.24]
If f is a function on a convex domain D R
n
and
d
2
dt
2
f(a + tv) < 0 for all lines a + tv in D, then
f(x) is strictly concave.
Corollary 1.40 [Multivariable Version of Corollary 1.25]
A twice differentiable function f(x) on a convex domain D is concave, if and only if
d
2
dt
2
f(a + tv) 0
on all lines a + tv in D.
As we have seen, the sign of these second derivatives depends on the Hessian matrix. This gives us
our most useful computational test for the concavity of a multivariable function.
Theorem 1.41
Let f(x) be a twice-differentiable function on a convex domain D. If Hf (x) is negative definite for all
x in D, then f is strictly concave.
This means that concavity plays the same role in multivariable optimization as in single-variable
optimization. For some functions, we can identify a maximizer by concavity even though they do not
satisfy the second-order condition. On the other hand, the most convenient way to identify concave
functions is still the second derivatives.
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