# Any example of strongly convex functions whose gradients are Lipschitz continuous in $\mathbb{R}^N$

Let $f:\mathbb{R}^N\to\mathbb{R}$ be strongly convex and its gradient is Lipschitz continuous, i.e., for some $l>0$ and $L>0$ we have $$f(y)\geq f(x)+\nabla f(x)^T(y-x)+\frac{l}{2}||y-x||^2,$$ and $$||\nabla f(y)-\nabla f(x)||\leq L||y-x||$$ for any $x,y\in\mathbb{R}^N$.

For such a function, the only example I can come up with is the quadratic function $$f(x)=x^T A x +B x + C$$ where $A$ is positive definite. I wonder if there is any other example? Thanks.

Note: the strong convexity and Lipschitz continuity hold for the whole $\mathbb{R}^N$; otherwise $e^x$ ($x\in\mathbb{R}$) is good enough in $[0,1]$.

-- New Remark: I ask this question because these two assumptions are often seen in optimization papers. Functions that satisfy one of the two are easy to think of; to satisfy these two assumptions at the same time, I really doubt how many functions exist.

-- Finally came up with an example by myself: $$f(x)=\log(x+\sqrt{1+x^2})+x^2,x\in\mathbb{R}.$$

Strong convexity: $$\nabla f(x) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{1+x^2}}+2x,$$ $$\nabla^2 f(x) = -\frac{x}{(1+x^2)^{3/2}}+2.$$ Since $$\left|\frac{x}{(1+x^2)^{3/2}}\right|=\left|\frac{x}{\sqrt{1+x^2}}\right|\frac{1}{1+x^2}<1,$$ strong convexity follows from $$3 > \nabla^2 f(x)>1.$$

Lipschitz continuous gradient: \begin{align} \left|\nabla f(x+h)-\nabla f(x)\right|&\stackrel{(a)}{=}\left|\nabla f(x)+\nabla^2 f(y)h-\nabla f(x)\right|\\ &=\left|\nabla^2 f(y)h\right|\\ &\leq 3|h| \end{align} where $(a)$ is from the mean value theorem and $y$ is some number in $[x,x+h]$ for $h\geq 0$ or $[x+h,x]$ for $h<0$.

• Yes, have corrected it. – ZhuShY Jan 16 '15 at 2:15
• Now it's clear. So this question reduces to find another convex function that has Lipschitz gradient on the whole $\mathbb{R}^N$ space. Hopefully I can find one :) – ZhuShY Jan 16 '15 at 2:47
• Yes. Sorry for the earlier confusion! – Michael Grant Jan 16 '15 at 2:48
• I think to avoid confusion for others I shall delete my incorrect comment. You may wish to delete/restate followups. – Michael Grant Jan 16 '15 at 4:22
• @MichaelGrant Just let you know I finally came up with an example. – ZhuShY Feb 25 '15 at 17:28

Here's an example on $\mathbb R: f(x) = x^2-\cos x.$
A way to make lots of examples: Let $f$ be any positive bounded continuous function on $[0,\infty).$ For $x\ge 0,$ set
$$g(x) =\int_0^x \int_0^t f(s)\, ds\,dt.$$
Extend $g$ to an even function on all of $\mathbb R.$ Then $g$ satisfies the requirements.
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