Thursday, August 24, 2017

real analysis - Is there any function which grows 'slower' than its derivative?



Does a function f:RR such that f(x)>f(x)>0 exist?



Intuitively, I think it can't exist.



I've tried finding the answer using the definition of derivative:





  1. I know that if lim exists and is finite, then \lim_{x \rightarrow k} f(x) = \lim_{x \rightarrow k^+} f(x) = \lim_{x \rightarrow k^-} f(x)


  2. Thanks to this property, I can write:




\begin{align} & f'(x) > f(x) > 0 \\ & \lim_{h \rightarrow 0^+} \frac{f(x + h) - f(x)}h > f(x) > 0 \\ & \lim_{h \rightarrow 0^+} f(x + h) - f(x) > h f(x) > 0 \\ & \lim_{h \rightarrow 0^+} f(x + h) > (h + 1) f(x) > f(x) \\ & \lim_{h \rightarrow 0^+} \frac{f(x + h)}{f(x)} > h + 1 > 1 \end{align}




  1. This leads to the result 1 > 1 > 1 (or 0 > 0 > 0 if you stop earlier), which is false.



However I guess I made serious mistakes with my proof. I think I've used limits the wrong way. What do you think?


Answer




expanded from David's comment



f' > f means f'/f > 1 so (\log f)' > 1. Why not take \log f > x, say \log f = 2x, or f = e^{2x}.



Thus f' > f > 0 since 2e^{2x} > e^{2x} > 0.



added: Is there a sub-exponential solution?
From (\log f)'>1 we get
\log(f(x))-\log(f(0)) > \int_0^x\;1\;dt = x

so
\frac{f(x)}{f(0)} > e^x
and thus
f(x) > C e^x
for some constant C ... it is not sub-exponential.


No comments:

Post a Comment

analysis - Injection, making bijection

I have injection f \colon A \rightarrow B and I want to get bijection. Can I just resting codomain to f(A)? I know that every function i...