Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/5/c/solution

The objective is continuous on the compact disk, so a global maximum exists. Its gradient is , which is never zero, so a maximum cannot lie in the interior. It must have .
Both coordinates of a maximizing point are positive. Reflecting a negative coordinate to its positive counterpart strictly increases the objective without changing the constraint; at an endpoint with one coordinate zero, a small move along the circle into the positive quadrant also increases the objective to first order. Thus it suffices to consider .
The boundary Lagrange multiplier equations are and . Eliminate to obtain the two-dimensional nonlinear system of equations
Keeping this quadrant restriction excludes the boundary minimum that an unconstrained elimination could also produce. Under the stated uniqueness assumption for the admissible solution, the global maximum must be that solution. Approximate it with multivariable Newton iteration, solving and setting , with a suitable safeguard if needed. For example its explicit Jacobian matrix is
No numerical solution of the system is required.

New to topics? Read the docs here!