Paper 2, Section II, D
Part IB, 2011
(i) Let , where is twice differentiable and . Write down the associated Euler-Lagrange equation and show that the only solution is .
(ii) Let , where is twice differentiable and 0 . Show that only if .
(iii) Show that and deduce that the extremal value of is a global minimum.
(iv) Use the second variation of to verify that the extremal value of is a local minimum.
(v) How would your answers to part (i) differ in the case , where ? Show that the solution is not a global minimizer in this case. (You may use without proof the result .) Explain why the arguments of parts (iii) and (iv) cannot be used.