Optimization Letters https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-020-01563-6 ORIGINAL PAPER Second-order characterizations of quasiconvexity and pseudoconvexity for differentiable functions with Lipschitzian derivatives Pham Duy Khanh1,2 · Vo Thanh Phat3,4 Received: 23 February 2019 / Accepted: 25 February 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract For a C2-smooth function on a finite-dimensional space, a necessary condition for its quasiconvexity is the positive semidefiniteness of its Hessian matrix on the subspace orthogonal to its gradient, whereas a sufficient condition for its strict pseudoconvexity is the positive definiteness of its Hessian matrix on the subspace orthogonal to its gradient. Our aim in this paper is to extend those conditions for C1,1-smooth functions by using the Fréchet and Mordukhovich second-order subdifferentials. Keywords Second-order subdifferential · Mean value theorem · C1,1-smooth function · Quasiconvexity · Pseudoconvexity 1 Introduction Since the notion of convexity does not satisfy a variety of mathematical models used in sciences, economics, and engineering, various generalizations of convex functions have been introduced in literature [7,11,18] such as (strictly) quasiconvex and (strictly) pseudoconvex functions. Those functions share many nice properties of convex func- tions and cover some models which are effective and adaptable to real-world situations. To be more specific, the quasiconvexity of a function ensures the convexity of its sub- level sets, and the pseudoconvexity implies that its critical points are minimizers. B Pham Duy Khanh
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[email protected] 1 Department of Mathematics, HCMC University of Education, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 2 Center for Mathematical Modeling, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 3 Department of Mathematics, HCMC University of Education, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 4 Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA 123 P.