On the integral representation and the Raşa, Jensen and Hermite-Hadamard inequalities for box-convex functions (Q2693769)

If \(I\) and \(J\) are intervals, a function \(f:I\times J\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) is called box-\((m,n)\)-convex if all divided differences \(\left[ \begin{array} [c]{cccc} x_{0}, & x_{1}, & \cdots & x_{m}\\ y_{0}, & y_{1}, & \cdots & y_{n} \end{array} ;f\right] \) are nonnegative for all pairwise distinct points \(x_{0}\), \(x_{1},\ldots\ ,\) \(x_{m}\) and \(y_{0}\), \(y_{1},\ldots\ ,\) \(y_{n}\). An integral representation of such functions is proved and used to infer a characterization of the box-\((m,n)\)-convex ordering for \(m,n\geq2.\) Precisely, if \(S=[a,b]\times\lbrack c,d]\) and \(\tau\) is a signed finite Borel measure on \(S\), then in order that \(\iint\nolimits_{s}f(x,y)d\tau(x,y)\geq0\) for all continuous box-\((m,n)\)-convex functions \(f:S\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\), it is necessary and sufficient that the following two conditions are fulfilled: \((1)\) \(\iint\nolimits_{s}x^{i}A_{i}(y)d\tau(x,y)=0\) and \(\iint\nolimits_{s} y^{j}B_{j}(x)d\tau(x,y)=0\) for all continuous functions \(A_{i}\), \(B_{j}:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) (\(i=0,1,\ldots,m-1\) and \(j=0,1,\ldots ,n-1);\) \((2)\) \(\iint\nolimits_{s}\left( x-A\right) _{+}^{m-1}\left( y-B\right) _{+}^{n-1}d\tau(x,y)\geq0\) for all \(\left( A,B\right) \in S.\) Applications include a Raşa type inequality for box-\((m,n)\)-convex functions, and some analogs of the Hermite-Hadamard inequality and of Jensen inequality for the box-\((2,2\))-convex functions (as well as for the strongly box-\((m,n)\)-convex functions). These extend results previously obtained by \textit{S. G. Gal} and \textit{C. P. Niculescu} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 479, No. 1, 903--925 (2019; Zbl 1423.26025)] and by \textit{B. Gavrea} and \textit{I. Gavrea} [Mediterr. J. Math. 19, No. 1, Paper No. 18, 15 p. (2022; Zbl 1503.41010)].