Two inequalities for convex functions (Q2577874)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
Two inequalities for convex functions
scientific article

    Statements

    Two inequalities for convex functions (English)
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    9 January 2006
    0 references
    The origin of the inequalities studied in this short note is a conjecture in Additive Number Theory, made by P. Erdős: with the sequence \(S\) of positive integers \(a_0<a_1<\cdots<a_n\) such that the additive sum \(\sum(S)=\sum_0^n\delta_ia_i\) contains only distinct numbers, where \(\delta_i=0,1\), one would have \[ \sum_0^n\frac{1}{a_i}\leq\sum_0^n\frac{1}{2^i}. \] Though one can easily verify with some examples that the inequality is the best upper bound, the condition in the conjecture is indeed a very strong one, and the conjectured inequality probably is not the only parameter to capture its real essence in terms of the additive structure of the sequence. It turned out that the conjecture was proved by P. Frenkel in 1998 via a purely analytic inequality: \[ \sum_0^nf(a_i)\leq\sum_0^nf(2^i), \] for any convex decreasing function. This result was further extended to \[ \sum_0^nf(\alpha_i)\leq\sum_0^nf(\beta_i),\quad\text{ if}~\alpha_1<\cdots<\alpha_n~\text{ and}~ \sum_0^k\alpha_i\geq\sum_0^k\beta_i,~\forall k, \] by Y. Chen in 2000. The results in this note generalizes Chen's results further. It shows first a result with non negative coefficients \(k_i\). That is \[ \sum_0^nk_if(\alpha_i)\leq\sum_0^nk_if(\beta_i),\quad\text{ if}\quad \sum_0^kk_i\alpha_i\geq\sum_0^kk_i\beta_i,~\forall k. \] Based on this it then shows \[ \sum_0^nf(\alpha_i)g(\alpha'_i)\leq\sum_0^nf(\beta_i)g(\beta'_i),\quad\text{ if}\quad \sum_0^k\alpha_i\geq\sum_0^k\beta_i~\text{ and}~\sum_0^k\alpha'_i\geq\sum_0^k\beta'_i,~\forall k, \] where \(\alpha'_1<\cdots<\alpha'_n\) and \(g\) is also a non-negative convex decreasing function.
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    additive theory
    0 references
    convex functions
    0 references
    inequalities
    0 references
    0 references