Hölder's inequality
Template:Short description In mathematical analysis, Hölder's inequality, named after Otto Hölder, is a fundamental inequality between integrals and an indispensable tool for the study of LpScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". spaces.
The numbers Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar above are said to be Hölder conjugates of each other. The special case p = q = 2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gives a form of the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality.[1] Hölder's inequality holds even if Template:Norm1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is infinite, the right-hand side also being infinite in that case. Conversely, if Template:Mvar is in Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Template:Mvar is in Lq(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., then the pointwise product fgScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is in L1(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..
Hölder's inequality is used to prove the Minkowski inequality, which is the triangle inequality in the space Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., and also to establish that Lq(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is the dual space of Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". for p ∈Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Closed-open.
Hölder's inequality (in a slightly different form) was first found by Leonard James Rogers (1888). Inspired by Rogers' work, Script error: No such module "Footnotes". gave another proof as part of a work developing the concept of convex and concave functions and introducing Jensen's inequality,[2] which was in turn named for work of Johan Jensen building on Hölder's work.[3]
Remarks
Conventions
The brief statement of Hölder's inequality uses some conventions.
- In the definition of Hölder conjugates, 1/∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". means zero.
- If p, q ∈Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Closed-open, then Template:NormpScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Template:NormqScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". stand for the (possibly infinite) expressions
- If p = ∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., then Template:Norm∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". stands for the essential supremum of Template:AbsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., similarly for Template:Norm∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..
- The notation Template:NormpScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". with 1 ≤ p ≤ ∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is a slight abuse, because in general it is only a norm of Template:Mvar if Template:NormpScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is finite and Template:Mvar is considered as equivalence class of Template:Mvar-almost everywhere equal functions. If f ∈ Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and g ∈ Lq(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., then the notation is adequate.
- On the right-hand side of Hölder's inequality, 0 × ∞ as well as ∞ × 0 means 0. Multiplying a > 0Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". with ∞ gives ∞.
Estimates for integrable products
As above, let Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar denote measurable real- or complex-valued functions defined on Template:Mvar. If Template:Norm1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is finite, then the pointwise products of Template:Mvar with Template:Mvar and its complex conjugate function are Template:Mvar-integrable, the estimate
and the similar one for fgScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". hold, and Hölder's inequality can be applied to the right-hand side. In particular, if Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar are in the Hilbert space L2(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., then Hölder's inequality for p = q = 2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". implies
where the angle brackets refer to the inner product of L2(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. This is also called Cauchy–Schwarz inequality, but requires for its statement that Template:Norm2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Template:Norm2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". are finite to make sure that the inner product of Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar is well defined. We may recover the original inequality (for the case p = 2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".) by using the functions Template:AbsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Template:AbsScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". in place of Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar.
Generalization for probability measures
If (S, Σ, μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is a probability space, then p, q ∈Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Closed-closed just need to satisfy 1/p + 1/q ≤ 1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., rather than being Hölder conjugates. A combination of Hölder's inequality and Jensen's inequality implies that
for all measurable real- or complex-valued functions Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar on Template:Mvar.
Notable special cases
For the following cases assume that Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar are in the open interval Template:Open-open with 1/p + 1/q = 1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..
Counting measure
For the -dimensional Euclidean space, when the set is with the counting measure, we have
Often the following practical form of this is used, for any :
For more than two sums, the following generalisation (Script error: No such module "Footnotes"., Script error: No such module "Footnotes".) holds, with real positive exponents and :
Equality holds iff .
If with the counting measure, then we get Hölder's inequality for sequence spaces:
Lebesgue measure
If is a measurable subset of with the Lebesgue measure, and and are measurable real- or complex-valued functions on , then Hölder's inequality is
Probability measure
For the probability space let denote the expectation operator. For real- or complex-valued random variables and on Hölder's inequality reads
Let and define Then is the Hölder conjugate of Applying Hölder's inequality to the random variables and we obtain
In particular, if the Template:Mvarth absolute moment is finite, then the Template:Mvar th absolute moment is finite, too. (This also follows from Jensen's inequality.)
Product measure
For two σ-finite measure spaces (S1, Σ1, μ1)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and (S2, Σ2, μ2)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". define the product measure space by
where Template:Mvar is the Cartesian product of S1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and S2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., the σ-algebra ΣScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". arises as product σ-algebra of Σ1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Σ2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., and Template:Mvar denotes the product measure of μ1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and μ2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. Then Tonelli's theorem allows us to rewrite Hölder's inequality using iterated integrals: If Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar are ΣScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".-measurable real- or complex-valued functions on the Cartesian product Template:Mvar, then
This can be generalized to more than two σ-finite measure spaces.
Vector-valued functions
Let (S, Σ, μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". denote a σ-finite measure space and suppose that f = (f1, ..., fn)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and g = (g1, ..., gn)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". are ΣScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".-measurable functions on Template:Mvar, taking values in the Template:Mvar-dimensional real- or complex Euclidean space. By taking the product with the counting measure on Template:MsetScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., we can rewrite the above product measure version of Hölder's inequality in the form
If the two integrals on the right-hand side are finite, then equality holds if and only if there exist real numbers α, β ≥ 0Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., not both of them zero, such that
for Template:Mvar-almost all Template:Mvar in Template:Mvar.
This finite-dimensional version generalizes to functions Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar taking values in a normed space which could be for example a sequence space or an inner product space.
Proof of Hölder's inequality
There are several proofs of Hölder's inequality; the main idea in the following is Young's inequality for products.
Alternative proof using Jensen's inequality:
We could also bypass use of both Young's and Jensen's inequalities. The proof below also explains why and where the Hölder exponent comes in naturally.
Extremal equality
Statement
Assume that 1 ≤ p < ∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and let Template:Mvar denote the Hölder conjugate. Then for every f ∈ Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".,
where max indicates that there actually is a Template:Mvar maximizing the right-hand side. When p = ∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and if each set Template:Mvar in the σ-field ΣScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". with μ(A) = ∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". contains a subset B ∈ ΣScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". with 0 < μ(B) < ∞Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (which is true in particular when Template:Mvar is σ-finite), then
Proof of the extremal equality:
Remarks and examples
- The equality for fails whenever there exists a set of infinite measure in the -field with that has no subset that satisfies: (the simplest example is the -field containing just the empty set and and the measure with ) Then the indicator function satisfies but every has to be -almost everywhere constant on because it is -measurable, and this constant has to be zero, because is -integrable. Therefore, the above supremum for the indicator function is zero and the extremal equality fails.
- For the supremum is in general not attained. As an example, let and the counting measure. Define:
- Then For with let denote the smallest natural number with Then
Applications
- The extremal equality is one of the ways for proving the triangle inequality Template:Normp ≤ Template:Normp + Template:NormpScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". for all f1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and f2Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". in Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., see Minkowski inequality.
- Hölder's inequality implies that every f ∈ Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". defines a bounded (or continuous) linear functional κfScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". on Lq(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". by the formula
- The extremal equality (when true) shows that the norm of this functional κfScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". as element of the continuous dual space Lq(μ)*Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". coincides with the norm of Template:Mvar in Lp(μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (see also the LpScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".-space article).
Generalization with more than two functions
Statement
Assume that r ∈Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Open-closed and p1, ..., pn ∈ Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Open-closed such that
where 1/∞ is interpreted as 0 in this equation, and r=∞ implies p1, ..., pn ∈ Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Open-closed are all equal to ∞. Then, for all measurable real or complex-valued functions f1, ..., fnScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". defined on Template:Mvar,
where we interpret any product with a factor of ∞ as ∞ if all factors are positive, but the product is 0 if any factor is 0.
In particular, if for all then
Note: For contrary to the notation, Template:NormrScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is in general not a norm because it doesn't satisfy the triangle inequality.
Proof of the generalization: Template:Math proof
Interpolation
Let p1, ..., pn ∈Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Open-closed and let θ1, ..., θn ∈ (0, 1)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". denote weights with θ1 + ... + θn = 1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. Define as the weighted harmonic mean, that is,
Given measurable real- or complex-valued functions on Template:Mvar, then the above generalization of Hölder's inequality gives
In particular, taking gives
Specifying further θ1 = θScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and θ2 = 1-θScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., in the case we obtain the interpolation result
An application of Hölder gives
Both Littlewood and Lyapunov imply that if then for all [4]
Reverse Hölder inequalities
Two functions
Assume that p ∈ (1, ∞)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and that the measure space (S, Σ, μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". satisfies μ(S) > 0Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. Then for all measurable real- or complex-valued functions Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar on Template:Mvar such that g(s) ≠ 0Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". for Template:Mvar-almost all s ∈ SScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".,
If
then the reverse Hölder inequality is an equality if and only if
Note: The expressions:
and
are not norms, they are just compact notations for
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Note that Template:Mvar and
are Hölder conjugates. Application of Hölder's inequality gives
Raising to the power Template:Mvar gives us:
Therefore:
Now we just need to recall our notation.
Since Template:Mvar is not almost everywhere equal to the zero function, we can have equality if and only if there exists a constant α ≥ 0Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". such that Template:Abs = αTemplate:Hair spaceTemplate:Abs−q/pScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". almost everywhere. Solving for the absolute value of Template:Mvar gives the claim.Multiple functions
The Reverse Hölder inequality (above) can be generalized to the case of multiple functions if all but one conjugate is negative. That is,
- Let and be such that (hence ). Let be measurable functions for . Then
This follows from the symmetric form of the Hölder inequality (see below).
Symmetric forms of Hölder inequality
It was observed by Aczél and Beckenbach[5] that Hölder's inequality can be put in a more symmetric form, at the price of introducing an extra vector (or function):
Let be vectors with positive entries and such that for all . If are nonzero real numbers such that , then:
- if all but one of are positive;
- if all but one of are negative.
The standard Hölder inequality follows immediately from this symmetric form (and in fact is easily seen to be equivalent to it). The symmetric statement also implies the reverse Hölder inequality (see above).
The result can be extended to multiple vectors:
Let be vectors in with positive entries and such that for all . If are nonzero real numbers such that , then:
- if all but one of the numbers are positive;
- if all but one of the numbers are negative.
As in the standard Hölder inequalities, there are corresponding statements for infinite sums and integrals.
Conditional Hölder inequality
Let (Ω, Template:Mathcal, )Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". be a probability space, Template:Mathcal ⊂ Template:MathcalScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". a sub-σ-algebra, and p, q ∈Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Open-open Hölder conjugates, meaning that 1/p + 1/q = 1Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. Then for all real- or complex-valued random variables Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar on ΩScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".,
Remarks:
- If a non-negative random variable Template:Mvar has infinite expected value, then its conditional expectation is defined by
- On the right-hand side of the conditional Hölder inequality, 0 times ∞ as well as ∞ times 0 means 0. Multiplying a > 0Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". with ∞ gives ∞.
Proof of the conditional Hölder inequality: Template:Math proof
Hölder's inequality for increasing seminorms
Let Template:Mvar be a set and let be the space of all complex-valued functions on Template:Mvar. Let Template:Mvar be an increasing seminorm on meaning that, for all real-valued functions we have the following implication (the seminorm is also allowed to attain the value ∞):
Then:
where the numbers and are Hölder conjugates.[6]
Remark: If (S, Σ, μ)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is a measure space and is the upper Lebesgue integral of then the restriction of Template:Mvar to all ΣScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".-measurable functions gives the usual version of Hölder's inequality.
Distances based on Hölder inequality
Hölder inequality can be used to define statistical dissimilarity measures[7] between probability distributions. Those Hölder divergences are projective: They do not depend on the normalization factor of densities.
See also
- Cauchy–Schwarz inequality
- Minkowski inequality
- Jensen's inequality
- Young's inequality for products
- Clarkson's inequalities
- Brascamp–Lieb inequality
Citations
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- ↑ For a proof see Script error: No such module "Footnotes"..
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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References
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- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".. Available at Digi Zeitschriften.
- Template:Springer.
- Template:Narici Beckenstein Topological Vector Spaces
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- Template:Trèves François Topological vector spaces, distributions and kernels
External links
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Cbignore.
Template:Lp spaces Template:Measure theory Template:Functional analysis