Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / iii / Paper 348 / 2 / b / i / Solution

Restrict $\phi$ to an arbitrary line segment by defining $q(t)=\phi ((1-t)x+ty)$ for $0\le t\le 1$. The chain rule and the assumed positive semidefinite matrix condition on the Hessian matrix giveThus $q^{\prime }$ is non-decreasing. For $0<t<1$, integrating $q^{\prime }$ on the two subintervals givesRearranging, and including the immediate endpoint cases, yieldsThis is precisely the definition of a convex function.