Tricki

## Revision of How to use implicit function theorem to prove smoothness from Fri, 24/04/2009 - 23:44

### Quick description

Suppose you have a function and you would like to see that is . One way to show this is to find a function such that and

The implicit function theorem will imply that is .

Calculus

### are there other examples of the argument in example one?

The above example has a more sophisticated method than the one I tried to describe in the quick description section. In the generalization of the method of example 1, there would be a function and the goal would be to improve our understanding of its smoothness. To that end, we use itself to define another function

such that , and is as smooth as . Now the implicit function theorem says is as smooth as and hence . The argument is continued as many steps as possible. Does anyone know of another application of this argument, or an argument similar to this?

### Notation

The notation "" isn't very clear. My first thought was: "partial derivative with respect to ". After this, I figured you meant the operator on given by the decomposition of (the Jacobian of ), since this is the condition required by the theorem. Still, the notation gives rise the possibility .

What does the notation mean in equation 2?

Instead of using , why not use ?

### Notation

Thanks for the comment. I like the notation and frequently use it because it consisely states everything related to the operation (we are taking a derivative with respect to a variable.) The one you suggest () is also good I think. As for . This is common notation in many books, including Fleming and Rishel. I don't prefer it because I think it is confusing to use the same symbol to mean two entirely different things on the same page. In this case, if we use the notation, will mean the derivative of the function with respect to time and also the name of a free variable.

is a is a free variable representing a function satisfying the Euler-Lagrange equation. It probably is not a good choice of notation because as you point out upon reading it one thinks it must be related to the in its context. I changed it to . This I think causes an abuse of notation, but hopefully not a confusing one.