On some intermediate mean values (Q1950010)

Summary: We give a necessary and sufficient mean condition for the quotient of two Jensen functionals and define a new class \(\Lambda_{f, g}(a, b)\) of mean values where \(f, g\) are continuously differentiable convex functions satisfying the relation \(f''(t) = tg''(t), t \in \mathbb R^+\). Then we asked for a characterization of \(f, g\) such that the inequalities \(H(a, b) \leq \Lambda_{f, g}(a, b) \leq A(a, b)\) or \(L(a, b) \leq \Lambda_{f, g}(a, b) \leq I(a, b)\) hold for each positive \(a, b\), where \(H, A, L, I\) are the harmonic, arithmetic, logarithmic, and identric means, respectively. For a subclass of \(\Lambda\) with \(g''(t) = t^s, s \in \mathbb R\), this problem is thoroughly solved.