Abstract
In this article, we extend some estimates of the right-hand side of a Hermite-Hadamard-type
inequality for preinvex functions. Then, a generalization to functions of several
variables on invex subsets of
is introduced.
Keywords:
Hermite-Hadamard inequality; invex sets; preinvex functions1 Introduction and preliminary
Let
be an interval on the real line ℝ, let
be a convex function and let
,
. We consider the well-known Hadamard’s inequality
Both inequalities hold in the reversed direction if f is concave. We note that Hadamard’s inequality may be regarded as a refinement of the concept of convexity and it follows easily from Jensen’s inequality. Hadamard’s inequality for convex functions has received renewed attention in recent years and a remarkable variety of refinements and generalizations have been found (see, for example, [1-4]).
The classical Hermite-Hadamard inequality provides estimates of the mean value of
a continuous convex function
.
Dragomir and Agarwal [5] used the formula,
to prove the following results.
Theorem 1.1Assume
with
and
is a differentiable function on
. If
is convex on
then the following inequality holds true
Theorem 1.2Assume
with
and
is a differentiable function on
. Assume
with
. If
is convex on
then the following inequality holds true
Ion [6] presented some estimates of the right-hand side of a Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality in which some quasi-convex functions are involved.
In recent years, several extensions and generalizations have been considered for classical convexity. A significant generalization of convex functions is that of invex functions introduced by Hanson [7]. Weir and Mond [8] introduced the concept of preinvex functions and applied it to the establishment of the sufficient optimality conditions and duality in nonlinear programming. Aslam Noor [9,10] introduced the Hermite-Hadamard inequality for preinvex and log-preinvex functions.
In this article, we generalize the results in [6] for functions whose first derivatives absolute values are preinvex. Also some results for functions whose second derivatives absolute values are preinvex will be given. Now, we recall some notions in invexity analysis which will be used throughout the article (see [11,12] and references therein).
Definition 1.1 A set
is said to be invex with respect to the map
, if for every
and
,
It is obvious that every convex set is invex with respect to the map
, but there exist invex sets which are not convex (see [11]). Let
be an invex set with respect to
. For every
the η-path
joining the points x and
is defined as follows
Definition 1.2 Let
be an invex set with respect to
. Then, the function
is said to be preinvex with respect to η, if for every
and
,
Every convex function is a preinvex with respect to the map
but the converse does not holds. For properties and applications of preinvex functions,
see [12,13] and references therein.
The organization of the article is as follows: In Section 2, some generalizations of Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality for first-order differentiable functions are given. Section 3 is devoted to a generalization to several variable preinvex functions. Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality for second-order differentiable functions are studied in Section 23.
2 First-order differentiable functions
In this section, we introduce some generalizations of Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality for functions whose first derivatives absolute values are preinvex. We begin with the following lemma which is a generalization of Lemma 2.1 in [5] to invex setting.
Lemma 2.1Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
and
with
. Suppose that
is a differentiable function. If
is integrable on theθ-path
then, the following equality holds
(7)Proof Suppose that
. Since A is an invex set with respect to θ, for every
we have
. Integrating by parts implies that
(8)which completes the proof. □
Theorem 2.1Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
. Suppose that
is a differentiable function. If
is preinvex onAthen, for every
with
the following inequality holds
(9)Proof Suppose that
. Since A is an invex set with respect to θ, for every
we have
. By preinvexity of
and Lemma 2.1 we get
(10)where,
□
Now, we give an example of an invex set with respect to an θ which is satisfies the conditions of Theorem 2.1.
Example 2.1 Suppose that
and the function
is defined by
Clearly K is an open invex set with respect to θ. Suppose that
and
,
hence,
. Now,
and
Another similar result is embodied in the following theorem.
Theorem 2.2Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
. Suppose that
is a differentiable function. Assume that
with
. If
is preinvex onAthen, for every
with
the following inequality holds
(11)Proof Suppose that
. By assumption, Hölder’s inequality and the proof of Theorem 4.1 we have
(12)Note that if
and
for every
then, we can deduce Theorems 1.1 and 1.2, from Theorems 2.1 and 2.2, respectively.
3 An extension to several variables functions
The aim of this section is to extend the Proposition 1 in [6] and Theorem 2.2 to functions of several variables defined on invex subsets of
.
The mapping
is said to be satisfies the condition C if for every
and
,

Note that, in Example 2.1, θ satisfies the condition C.
For every
and every
from condition C we have
see [12] for details.
Proposition 3.1Let
be an invex set with respect to
and
is a function. Suppose thatηsatisfies conditionConS. Then, for every
the functionfis preinvex with respect toηonη-path
if and only if the function
defined by
Proof Suppose that φ is convex on
and
,
. Fix
. Since η satisfies condition C, by (13) we have
Hence, f is preinvex with respect to η on η-path
.
Conversely, let
and the function f be preinvex with respect to η on η-path
. Suppose that
. Then, for every
we have
Therefore, φ is quasi-convex on
. □
The following theorem is a generalization of Proposition 1 in [6].
Theorem 3.1Let
be an open invex set with respect to
. Assume thatηsatisfies conditionC. Suppose that for every
the function
is preinvex with respect toηonη-path
. Then, for every
with
the following inequality holds,
(16)Proof Let
and
with
. Since f is preinvex with respect to η on η-path
by Proposition 3.1 the function
defined by
is convex on
. Now, we define the function
as follows
hence,
. Applying Theorem 1.1 to the function ϕ implies that
and we deduce that (16) holds. □
4 Second-order differentiable functions
In this section, we introduce some generalizations of Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality for functions whose second derivatives absolute values are preinvex. We begin with the following lemma (see Lemma 1 in [14] and Lemma 4 in [15]).
Lemma 4.1Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
and
with
. Suppose that
is a differentiable function. If
is integrable on theθ-path
,
then, the following equality holds
(17)Proof Suppose that
. Since A is an invex set with respect to θ, for every
we have
. Integrating by parts implies that
(18)which completes the proof. □
Theorem 4.1Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
and
for all
. Suppose that
is a twice differentiable function onA. If
is preinvex onAand
is integrable on theθ-path
,
then, the following inequality holds
(19)Proof Suppose that
. Since A is an invex set with respect to θ, for every
we have
. By preinvexity of
and Lemma 4.1 we get
(20)which completes the proof. □
The corresponding version for powers of the absolute value of the second derivative is incorporated in the following theorem.
Theorem 4.2Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
and
for all
. Suppose that
is a twice differentiable function onAand
is preinvex onA, for
. If
is integrable on theθ-path
,
then, the following inequality holds
(21)Proof By preinvexity of
, Lemma 4.1 and using the well-known Hölder integral inequality, we get

which completes the proof. □
A more general inequality is given using Lemma 4.1, as follows:
Theorem 4.3Let
be an open invex subset with respect to
and
for all
. Suppose that
is a twice differentiable function onAand
is preinvex onA, for
. If
is integrable on theθ-path
,
then, the following inequality holds
(22)Proof By preinvexity of
, Lemma 4.1 and using the well-known weighted power mean inequality, we get

which completes the proof. □
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
All authors conceived of the study, and participated in the design and coordination. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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