Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/9/d/solution

For every stationary point found above, and hence . The Hessian matrix is diagonal, with entries and , so
The entries always have the same sign. Therefore
The root on tangent branch has cosine sign . Thus even-numbered branches supply maxima and odd-numbered branches minima, symmetrically paired about the origin. There are no saddle points among these nondegenerate stationary points. The origin is a maximum with , and is in fact the global maximum since and .

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