Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / Paper 1 / 12 / b / i / Solution

The first partial derivatives factor asIf either coordinate vanishes, the other equation forces the other coordinate to vanish as well. If both are nonzero, subtracting the two bracket equations gives $x^2=y^2$, and then $x^2=y^2=1$. Thus the complete list of stationary points is $(0,0)$ and the four points $(\pm 1,\pm 1)$.

The Hessian matrix isAt the origin it is $8I$, which is a positive-definite matrix. At the four other points its eigenvalues are $32$ and $-16$, independently of the signs. The second-derivative test therefore givesThere are no local maxima. The minimum at the origin is not global, since $g(t,t)=8t^2-4t^4\to -\infty$ as $|t|\to \infty$.