Potentially Stably Constant

Calculus Level 4

A certain function f : [ 0 , 1 ] R f : [0, 1] \to \mathbb{R} is

  • smooth, and
  • for every x ( 0 , 1 ) x \in (0,1) , there exists n N n \in \mathbb{N} such that f ( n ) ( x ) = 0 f^{(n)}(x) = 0 , where f ( n ) f^{(n)} denotes the n n th derivative.

Is f f a polynomial function?


Source: Link and Link
Yes, always No, not necessarily

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1 solution

Joël Ganesh
Jul 25, 2019

This proof might be incorrect, but I want to know what you think.

Let f f be a function satisfying the given conditions. Let N : = min { n N x [ 0 , 1 ] : f ( n ) ( x ) = 0 } N := \min \{n \in \mathbb{N} \, | \, \forall x \in [0,1]: f^{(n)}(x) = 0\} . This minimum exists, because of the second condition and the fact that for all x [ 0 , 1 ] x \in [0,1] and all n , m N : f ( n ) ( x ) = 0 f ( n + m ) ( x ) = 0 n,m \in \mathbb{N}: f^{(n)}(x) = 0 \implies f^{(n+m)}(x) = 0 . Because of the choice of N N , it follows that f ( N ) f^{(N)} is identically equal to 0 on the interval [ 0 , 1 ] [0,1] while f ( N 1 ) f^{(N-1)} is not identically 0 on the same interval. So, f ( x ) = N times f ( N ) ( x ) d x d x N times = N times 0 d x d x N times = C N 1 x N 1 + C N 2 x N 2 + + C 1 x + C 0 , f(x) = \underbrace{\int \cdots \int}_{N \text{ times}} f^{(N)}(x) \, \underbrace{\mathrm{d}x \cdots \mathrm{d}x}_{N \text{ times}} = \underbrace{\int \cdots \int}_{N \text{ times}} 0 \, \underbrace{\mathrm{d}x \cdots \mathrm{d}x}_{N \text{ times}} = C_{N-1} \cdot x^{N-1} + C_{N-2} \cdot x^{N-2} + \cdots + C_1 \cdot x + C_0, where C 0 , , C N 1 C_0, \ldots, C_{N-1} denote constant coefficients. We conclude that f f is a polynomial.

Why is it true that

for all x [ 0 , 1 ] x \in [0,1] and all n , m N : f ( n ) ( x ) = 0 f ( n + m ) ( x ) = 0 n,m \in \mathbb{N}: f^{(n)}(x) = 0 \implies f^{(n+m)}(x) = 0

?

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 1 year, 10 months ago

I thought that if f ( n ) ( x ) x = a = 0 , \left. f^{(n)}(x) \right|_{x=a} = 0, then f ( n + 1 ) ( x ) x = a = d d x f ( n ) ( x ) x = a = d d x 0 = 0 \left. f^{(n+1)}(x) \right|_{x=a} = \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x} \left. f^{(n)}(x) \right|_{x=a} = \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x} \, 0 = 0 . By induction it follows that f ( n + m ) ( x ) x = a = 0 \left. f^{(n+m)}(x) \right|_{x=a} = 0 . I can't really see what could be wrong with this argument

Joël Ganesh - 1 year, 10 months ago

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Nevermind, I have already figured out where the mistake is.

Joël Ganesh - 1 year, 10 months ago

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Yeah, that's okay.

If you follow the links in the problem statement, you will find some solutions. They use Baire's Category Theorem.

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 1 year, 10 months ago

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@Agnishom Chattopadhyay Thank you, I will look into them.

Joël Ganesh - 1 year, 10 months ago

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