Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/11/c/solution

Writing , the absolute lower bound is , attained exactly when
Every point on these circles is a global and local minimum, but not a strict minimum: neighbouring points on the same circle have exactly the same value. At such a point the radial Hessian eigenvalue is one and the tangential eigenvalue is zero, illustrating why a degenerate second-derivative test does not exclude a minimum.
There are no other local minima: between successive multiples of , moving radially changes the value monotonically. The positive even-radius circles are maxima. At the origin the apparently singular radial expression is smooth, since , and the origin is a strict local maximum.
Figure 1.
Nonisolated radial minima and a two-lobed saddle contour
. Original level plots. The left panel marks whole circles of global minima; the right marks the saddle at the origin, two global maxima and the exact zero contour. Details.

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