I am trying to build intuition on Legendre transforms. Arnold's Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics has some nice geometric interpretations, but he does not provide a proof that the Legendre transform of a convex function is convex. I know we can prove it by applying some inequalities, but is there a nice geometric argument (with a picture) that allows us to see that it is true?
Is there a geometric argument that the Legendre transform of a convex function is convex?
7
$\begingroup$
convex-analysis
transformation
2 Answers
5
The proof you seek, and the geometric insights you desire, and the links to physical dynamics, all are given in an outstanding survey article:
@article{Author = {Zia, R. K. P. and Redish, Edward F. and McKay, Susan R.}, Journal = {American Journal of Physics}, Number = {7}, Pages = {614-622}, Title = {Making sense of the {L}egendre transform}, Volume = {77}, Year = {2009}}
For the convexity proof in particular, see Equation 47 and the discussion that follows.
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If you draw a collection of straight lines on a paper and you inspect the "upper contour" of these lines, you notice that this contour is convex. Similarly, the Legendre transform of a function is basically a supremum (=upper contour) over a family of affine functions (=straight lines).