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For which real $\beta$ there exist strictly concave(convex upwards) functions $f, g: (0;1) \to (0;+\infty)$ such that $\frac{f(x)}{g(x)}=(1+x)^\beta$?

My attempt: if we don't require $f>0$ and $g>0$ then the problem is trivial: $f=(1+x)^\beta g$ and we want $f''<0$ and $g''<0$; $f''=\beta(\beta-1)(1+x)^{\beta-2}g+2\beta(1+x)^{\beta-1}g'+(1+x)^\beta g''<0$, then choose $g$ with $g''<0$ in such a way that if $\beta(\beta-1)$ and $\beta$ are positive/negative then $g<0, g'<0\big/g>0, g'>0$, and if $\beta(\beta-1)$ and $\beta$ have not the same sign then $gg'<0$ with an appropriate choice of signs, hence for any real $\beta$ there exist such functions. The condition $f>0, g>0$ makes the problem very tricky and I have no idea what to do in this case

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  • $\begingroup$ Maybe Jensen's inequality may help? $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 24 at 9:06

1 Answer 1

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This is not a complete answer. The case $\beta=0$ is obvious, and we can assume wlog that $\beta>0$.

I relax slightly your conditions by looking for concave functions (and not necessarily strictly concave) to get a clearer idea of the solutions.

Let $g(x)=1-x$, so that $f(x)=(1-x)(1+x)^{\beta}$ with $f''(x)=\beta(1+x)^{\beta-2}(\beta-3-(\beta+1)x)$. That gives a strictly concave $f$ for all $\beta<3$, and you can add to $g$ a very small concave and positive function to fulfill the strict condition for both $f$ and $g$.

For $\beta>3$, the function $(1-x)(1+x)^{\beta}$ has an inflection point at $\alpha=\frac{\beta-3}{\beta+1}$, with $f(\alpha)=\frac{4}{\beta+1}(\alpha+1)^{\beta}$ and $f'(\alpha)=2(\alpha+1)^{\beta-1}$, so you could replace the convex part on the left of $\alpha$ by a linear expression: $$f(x)=2(\alpha+1)^{\beta-1}\left(x-\frac{\beta^2-6\beta+1}{(\beta+1)^2}\right)$$ provided that $f$ stays positive on $(0,1)$, i.e. $\beta<3+2\sqrt 2$.

Then modify $g$ on the same interval to satisfy the initial equation. That gives $$g'(x)=2\frac{(\alpha+1)^{\beta-1}}{(1+x)^{\beta+1}}\left((1-\beta)x+\frac{\beta^3-5\beta^2+3\beta+1}{(\beta+1)^2}\right)$$ $$g''(x)=2\beta\frac{(\alpha+1)^{\beta-1}}{(1+x)^{\beta+2}}\left((\beta-1)x-\frac{2\beta^2-5\beta+3}{\beta+1}\right)$$ So the new expression of $g$ is concave for $x<\frac{2\beta^2-5\beta+3}{\beta^2-1}$. We still have to check: $$\alpha<\frac{2\beta^2-5\beta+3}{\beta^2-1}\iff (\beta-3)(\beta-1)<2\beta^2-5\beta+3\\ \iff \beta^2-\beta>0$$ and this is true.

Finally, I can claim that you always have solutions for $\beta<3+2\sqrt 2$. I conjecture this is the upper bound, but I have no complete arguments.

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