Real Analysis – Proof of Hölder’s Inequality by Weighted AM-GM Inequality

a.m.-g.m.-inequalityholder-inequalityinequalityreal-analysis

I am going throw my notes, and for the proof of Hölder's inequality, I wrote the following:

Theorem. (Hölder) Let $1 \leq q,r \leq \infty $ such that $ \dfrac{1}{q} + \dfrac{1}{r} = 1 $ (here we assume $\frac{1}{\infty} = 0$), and let $a, b \in \mathbb{R}^p$ ($p\in \mathbb{N}^+$). Then we have $$ \langle a,b \rangle \leq \|a\|_q \|b\|_r,$$
where $\|x\|_t = \left(|x_1|^t + \ldots + |x_p|^t\right)^\frac{1}{t}$ and $\|x\|_\infty = \max\limits_{1\leq i \leq p} (|x_i|)$.

Proof. If $a = \mathbf{0}$ or $b = \mathbf{0}$, the proof is trivial. If $q = 1$ or $r = 1$ the proof is simple.
If $1<q,r<\infty$ and $a \neq \mathbf{0} \neq b$, then we can assume $\|a\|_q = \|b\|_r = 1 $. Then we apply the weighted AM-GM inequality to the numbers $|a_i|^q, |b_i|^r$ with weighs $\dfrac{1}{q}, \dfrac{1}{r}$, which finishes the proof.

My questions: Why is the proof simple, if $q = 1$ or $r = 1$? What I don't see either is how to finish the proof with AM-GM? I tried to apply that inequality but I don't see how it's related to Hölder's inequality…

Any help would be appreciated!

Best Answer

The first problem is clear by recalling what is the definition of 1-norm and infinity-norm.

To show the second, apply the generalized AM-GM so we get $$ \frac{1/p|a_i|^p + 1/q|b_i|^q}{1} \geq |a_i||b_i| $$ Now sum the equation through all $i$. Then we get $$ \frac{1}{p}\sum_i |a_i|^p + \frac{1}{q} \sum_j|b_j|^q \geq \sum_i |a_i||b_i| \geq \langle a,b \rangle $$ Now as you assume $||a||_p = ||b||_q = 1$, $\sum_i|a_i|^p = \sum_j|b_j|^q = 1$, so $$ \frac{1}{p}\sum_i |a_i|^p + \frac{1}{q} \sum_j|b_j|^q = \frac{1}{p} + \frac{1}{q} = 1 = ||a||_p||b||_q $$ so the inequality is proved as required.

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