TITLE:
Avoiding the Use of Lagrange Multipliers. II. Constrained Extrema of Functionals and the Evaluation of Constrained Derivatives
AUTHORS:
David S. Corti, Ricardo Fariello
KEYWORDS:
Constrained Extrema, Functional Derivatives, Projection Matrices
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics,
Vol.12 No.8,
August
12,
2024
ABSTRACT: A method for determining the extrema of a real-valued and differentiable function for which its dependent variables are subject to constraints and that avoided the use of Lagrange multipliers was previously presented (Corti and Fariello, Op. Res. Forum 2 (2021) 59). The method made use of projection matrices, and a corresponding Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization process, to identify the constrained extrema. Furthermore, information about the second-derivatives of the given function with constraints was generated, from which the nature of the constrained extrema could be determined, again without knowledge of the Lagrange multipliers. Here, the method is extended to the case of functional derivatives with constraints. In addition, constrained first-order and second-order derivatives of the function are generated, in which the derivatives with respect to a given variable are obtained and, concomitantly, the effect of the variations of the remaining chosen set of dependent variables are strictly accounted for. These constrained derivatives are valid not only at the extrema points, and also provide another equivalent route for the determination of the constrained extrema and their nature.