Real Analysis – Is Multiplication on ? a Lipschitz Function?

lipschitz-functionsreal-analysis

This question is related to this unanswered question on the site. My question is specifically about the special case when $n=1$:

Let $f:\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ be the function defined as $f(x,y)=xy$. Is $f$ Lipschitz?


An unsuccessful attempt and some thoughts:

By definition, IF it is Lipschitz, one has a uniform estimate like
$$
|xy-uv|\le K|(x,y)-(u,v)|=K\sqrt{(x-u)^2+(y-v)^2}\tag{1}
$$

It suffices to prove a squared version of (1):
$$
(xy)^2+(uv)^2-2(xyuv)\le K \big(x^2+y^2+u^2+v^2-2(xu+yv)\big)\tag{2}
$$

I see no hope to get an $K$ for (2).

On the other hand, if we fix a value of $y$ and consider the map $x\mapsto xy$, then this map is Lipschitz with a Lipschitz constant depending on the magnitude of $y$. This seems to suggest that $f$ cannot be Lipschitz.

Best Answer

Not globally, no. You can compare $|x y_1-xy_2|=|x||y_1-y_2|$ while $\sqrt{(x-x)^2+(y_2-y_1)^2}=|y_2-y_1|$ so any Lipschitz constant would need to be at least as large as the largest possible value of $x$. Same for $y$.

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