Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/prelims/mathematics-iv-resit/7/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2017 Prelims Mathematics IV resit 7 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Expanding and taking partial derivatives gives the gradient and Hessian matrixAt , these are andThus the Newton step solvesThe second equation gives ; substituting into the first gives . HenceAt , however,The eigenvalues of this Hessian matrix are in direction and in direction . It is invertible but indefinite. Thus the Newton step is zero, andThis illustrates that stationary points are fixed points of Newton's method. Here the fixed point is a saddle point of a scalar function, not a local minimum. Indeed, direct substitution along the two eigenvector directions givesFor sufficiently small nonzero , one direction decreases and the other increases it. The global minimum is instead zero: the sum of squares vanishes at and . These are the only real zeros, since and imply . Thus a zero gradient is an insufficient stopping certificate for minimization problem without classifying the stationary point.
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