For the maximum-entropy regularization functional, differentiation of the scalar integrand gives . Thus the Frechet derivative at a positive reference function is , and the stated differentiability result gives . Consequently,
This is the generalized Kullback–Leibler divergence. When both functions integrate to the same mass, the last two terms cancel after integration; for probability density functions it becomes the usual Kullback-Leibler divergence. For two positive functions, adding the reverse distance gives
A sufficient setting for the differentiability argument is with bounded away from zero. For nonnegative , use wherever appropriate. Positivity alone in does not automatically provide an open domain on which the Frechet derivative exists.
Let and assume . The scalar Poisson data fidelity integrand has derivative . Applying the permitted interchange of differentiation and integration in a direction gives
Thus the ambient-space Frechet derivative, or its Hilbert space gradient when the pairing is an inner product, is
The quotient is pointwise, and the adjoint operator transports it back from the data domain to the source domain. The chosen spaces must ensure the integrals and derivative pairing are finite; an output bounded away from zero is a useful sufficient condition.
The printed set of probability density functions and positive cone are not vector spaces, so the notation for a bounded linear map between them is understood as a positive bounded linear operator on ambient function spaces, restricted to admissible inputs. If unit mass is a constraint, admissible directions satisfy . The displayed gradient is then a representative modulo an additive constant; optimization with that constraint additionally includes its normal cone.
A function has a Frechet derivative at if there is a linear map such that
The remainder condition is a limit in all directions at once, not merely the existence of partial derivatives.
For the stated scalar two-variable result, fix and choose a small rectangle contained in the open set . Split the increment into two coordinate segments. Applying the one-dimensional mean value theorem on each segment yields
for , omitting a term if its increment is zero. Subtract . By continuity of the partial derivatives, for any the remainder has modulus at most for sufficiently small increments. This proves differentiability, with Jacobian matrix .
Away from the origin the specified rational function has a nonzero denominator and is smooth. At the origin, and , so the partial derivatives are , . Any Frechet derivative there would therefore be . However,
Thus
The failure is not merely a failure of continuity: at the origin, so the function is continuous there.
The chain rule for Frechet derivatives states that if is differentiable at and is differentiable at , then
The composition on the right is a composition of linear maps, equivalently a product of Jacobian matrices in coordinates.
Apply the chain rule to the affine function . The resulting derivative is
If the two partial derivatives agree everywhere, . The mean value theorem makes constant on . Define , which is itself differentiable by the chain rule. Taking gives , and therefore
No continuity of the partial derivatives beyond the assumed differentiability is needed.
Choose at which is finite and the -mean version of the Lebesgue differentiation theorem holds:
These conditions hold almost everywhere. On a cube about , subtract the affine function and put . Its weak derivative is and . Approximate as in part (b) and subtract the same affine function from the approximants. Uniform convergence and convergence of their weak derivatives extend part (a)'s estimate to , giving
For , choose and . It follows that
This is precisely classical Frechet derivative differentiability, not merely existence of coordinate derivatives. Therefore the differentiability almost everywhere of supercritical Sobolev functions gives
A map is differentiable at when there is a linear map such that
The linear map is the Frechet derivative of at .
The multivariable chain rule states that if is differentiable at and is differentiable at , then
Indeed, write and , where and . Since ,
and the last two terms are . This proves the formula.
For matrix inversion near the identity matrix,
The last term is because inversion is bounded near . Therefore the inversion map is differentiable at and
For , the function is differentiable at if there is a linear map such that
The linear map is unique and is the Frechet derivative . The function is continuously differentiable at if it is differentiable on a neighbourhood of and the map , with values in the space of linear maps equipped with the operator norm, is continuous at .
If is linear, then
Consequently at every . The derivative is a constant function of , hence is continuous, so every linear map is continuously differentiable everywhere.
The mean value inequality says that if the line segment lies in and
then
To prove it, put . The claim is immediate if . Otherwise set and apply the one-dimensional mean value theorem to the real-valued function
For some , the chain rule gives
as required.
Now suppose that is open and connected and that for every . Every point has an open ball contained in . The mean value inequality with shows that is constant on each such ball, so is locally constant. Fix . The level set
is nonempty and open in ; its complement is also open because is locally constant. Since is connected, . This proves the zero derivative on a connected open set result: is constant.
The inverse function theorem states that if is continuously differentiable, , and is an invertible linear map, then there are open neighbourhoods of and of such that is a bijection whose inverse is continuously differentiable.
For the curve in the question, define the continuously differentiable function
Then
The implicit function theorem, which follows from the inverse function theorem applied to , therefore gives an open interval containing , an open neighbourhood of , and a continuously differentiable, hence continuous, function such that
For
the Frechet derivative in direction is
Thus the Hilbert-space gradient is
The gradient descent update with step size is consequently
which is exactly Landweber iteration. Its stationary points solve the normal equation and minimize the convex quadratic functional .