1. Introduction
Functions are the most important and fundamental concepts in almost all areas of science, especially in mathematics. The functions are used as key research objects in mathematics for modeling and solving many real world phenomena. There are numerous important classes of functions, one of the most interesting classes of functions is the class of convex functions [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5]. This class of functions has several interesting properties and due to such properties and its behavior with solving problems, it become a focus point for the researchers [
6,
7,
8]. This class of functions has been applied in many fields, including engineering [
9], statistics [
10], optimization [
11] economics [
12], information theory [
13] and epidemiology [
14], etc. Due to the huge importance of this class, it has been generalized, improved, and expanded in diverse directions while utilizing its behavior and properties [
15]. In an elegant manner, convex function can be defined as:
Definition 1. A real valued function Ψ is said to be convex on if the inequalityis valid, for all and If for the aforesaid conditions, the inequality (1) is valid in the reverse direction, then the function Ψ is said to be concave. As a result of considerable applicability of the convex functions class, many important generalizations of this class have been investigated such like convex, convex, coordinate convex and quasi convex functions and many more. Among these generalizations of convex functions, one of them is the class of 4-convex functions. To give the definition of 4-convex function, first we present divided difference:
Consider the arbitrary function
and let
be any distinct points from
then the
mth ordered divided difference of
at the selected points is defined recursively as:
and the 4th ordered divided difference is given by:
Now, we give the definition of 4-convex function.
Definition 2 ([
2])
. A function is said to be 4-convex, if the relation is valid for all distinct points If the relation (2) is valid in the reverse sense with the mentioned conditions, then the function Ψ is said to be 4-concave. The following theorem provides a criteria for a function to be 4-convex.
Theorem 1 ([
2])
. Let be any function such that exists. Then Ψ is a 4-convex if and only if on Due to the massive properties and consequences of convex functions, a lot of problems have been solved and modeled in diverse fields of science with the help of this class of functions [
16,
17,
18,
19,
20]. It has been ascertained that, the convex functions played a very meaningful performance in the field of mathematical inequalities [
2,
21,
22,
23,
24]. There are many consequential inequalities that have been established via convex functions, such as majorization [
25], Favard’s [
26], Hermaite–Hadamard inequalities [
27] and many more [
28,
29,
30,
31,
32]. Besides these inequalities, one of the most attractive inequalities for the class of convex functions is the Jensen inequality [
10]. This inequality is also of the great interest in the sense that many classical inequalities can be deduced from it [
10,
33]. The formal form of the Jensen inequality is verbalized in the next theorem:
Theorem 2. Assume that and for each such that Further, suppose that the real valued function Ψ is convex on thenThe inequality (3) flips for the function Ψ to be concave on The integral variant of the Jensen inequality is stated in the following theorem.
Theorem 3. Let be any integrable functions such that for with Also, assume that Ψ is a convex function on and is an integrable, thenFor the concave function the inequality (4) holds in reverse direction. The Jensen inequality has many applications in the several fields of science for example, in information theory [
10], economics [
12], and statistics [
34], etc. This inequality has also been acquired for several other generalized classes of convex functions. Moreover, the aforesaid inequality has also been refined [
13], generalized [
35] and improved [
33] in many ways by consuming its behavior and properties. In 1981, Slater presented a companion inequality to the celebrated Jensen inequality, which is formally verbalized below:
Theorem 4 ([
36])
. Assume that and for each such that Also, let be an increasing convex function and Then In 1985, Pečarić relaxed the monotonicity condition of the function by assuming that: and obtained the following generalization of Slater’s inequality.
Theorem 5 ([
37])
. Assume that and for each such that Also, let the real valued function be convex, and Then By exploiting the behavior of Slater’s inequality and the properties of the convex functions, various types of generalizations, extensions, refinements, and improvements using different methods and approaches have been established. In addition, this inequality has also been acquired for other generalized classes of convex functions. In 2006, Bakula et al. [
38] considered the classes of
m and
convex functions and acquired several significant variants of Slater’s inequality. Furthermore, they also obatined variants of Jensen’s inequality and more other cognate results for aforementioned classes of convex functions. Bakula et al. [
39] established a couple of general inequalities of the Jensen-Steffensen type for the class of convex functions and then used these generalized inequalities to acquire some variants of the Slater as well as Jensen-Steffensen inequalities as special cases. Adil Khan and Pečarić [
40] achieved a reversion and an improvement of Slater’s inequality and also obtained some other related inequalities while taking differentiable functions. In 2012, Dragomir [
41] considered convex functions defined on general linear spaces and acquired some Slater’s type inequalities. In addition, applications of conserved inequalities for
divergence measures and norm inequalities are also provided. Delavar and Dragomir [
42] obtained some fundamental inequalities for the class of
convex functions and also inequalities related to the class of differentiable
convex functions. Furthermore, Jensen’s and Slater’s type and other related inequalities have also been derived for this class of convex functions.
The main theme of this article is to establish some improvements of the Slater inequality via 4-convexity. The whole article is organized in the following way:
In
Section 2, we shall establish the improvements of the Slater inequality.
In
Section 3, we shall give several relations for the power means as consequences of the main results.
In
Section 4, we shall present some applications of the obtained results in information theory.
In
Section 5, we shall achieve some bounds for the Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy as applications of the acquired results.
2. Improvements of Slater’s Inequality
In this section, we are going to establish improvements of the Slater inequality. The required improvements shall be made possible by using the definition of convex function and the renowned Jensen inequality for convex functions.
Now, we commence this section by stating a lemma that establishes an identity while taking a twice differentiable function.
Lemma 1. Presume that for each with and is a function such that exists. In addition, let and Then Proof. Without loss of generality, let
for each
Utilizing the integration by parts rule, we have
Clearly, which is equivalent to (
7). □
In the next theorem, we obtain an improvement for the Slater inequality by using the definition of convex function.
Theorem 6. Let all the hypotheses of Lemma 1 are valid. Moreover, if Ψ is 4-convex, thenFor the concave function Ψ, the inequality (8) reverses its direction. Proof. As a results of the fact that, the function Ψ is 4-convex, therefore utilizing the convex function definition on the right side of (
7), we acquire
Now, evaluating the integrals in (
9), we receive (
8). □
The integral form of (
8) is stated in the coming theorem.
Theorem 7. Let be any integrable functions such that with and be a twice differentiable such that and If and are integrable and Ψ is 4-convex, thenThe relation (10) is true in reverse direction for the concave function Ψ. In the following theorem, we receive another improvement for the Slater inequality.
Theorem 8. Assume that all the postulates of Theorem 6 are true, thenThe inequality (11) is valid in contrary direction, if the function Ψ is concave. Proof. From (
7), we have
From (
12), we obtain the following inequality with the help of Jensen’s inequality
Inequality (
11) can easily be obtained by checking the integral on the right side of (
13). □
The analogous form of the inequality (
11) is given in the below theorem.
Theorem 9. Assume that, all the hypotheses of Theorem 7 are true, thenIf the function Ψ is concave, then (14) is true in opposite sense. 3. Applications for the Power Means
In the current section, some of the consequences of the established results will be discussed in the form of inequalities for the notable power means. Here, we put some particular 4-convex functions in the main results for the obtaining of intended relations of the power means. Now, we initiate this with the definition of power mean.
Definition 3. Let and be arbitrary positive tuples and r be any real number. Then the power mean of order r is defined by: In the below corollary, we present some inequalities for the power means as a consequence of Theorem 6.
Corollary 1. Presume that are any positive tuples and are arbitrary non zero real numbers such that then the following statements are true:
(
i)
If such that or or then(
ii)
If such that or or then (15) holds.(
iii)
If such that or with then (15) holds in the opposite direction.Proof. Consider the function
defined on
Then
obviously
Which substantiate the 4-convexity of the function Ψ on
for the mentioned values of
t and
Therefore, utilizing (
8) for
and
we get (
15).
For the specified values of
r and
the function
is convex on
Therefore, applying (
8) while choosing
and
we obtain (
15).
For the mentioned conditions on r and
the function
is concave on
Therefore, taking
and
in (
8), we acquire the reverse inequality of (
15). □
The following corollary is the direct consequence of Theorem 8 for the power means.
Corollary 2. Let be arbitrary positive tuples and be any non zero real numbers such that then the following assertions are valid:
If such that or or then If such that or or then (16) holds. If such that or with then (16) holds in the opposite direction. Proof. Let
be a function defined on
Then clearly, the function Ψ is 4-convex with the given conditions. Therefore, putting
and
in (
11), we receive (
16).
For the stated conditions, the function
is 4-convex. Therefore, to deduce (
16) follow the procedure of
Obviously the function
is 4-concave for the aforementioned conditions. Therefore, the reverse inequality of (
16) can be obtained by adopting the method of
□
Another relation for the power means is deduced from Theorem 6.
Corollary 3. Suppose that are any tuples such that for each then Proof. Consider
Then
clearly
for all
This confirms the 4-convexity of
Therefore, utilizing (
8) for
and
we acquire (
17). □
By taking the 4-convex function
in (
11), we acquire a relation for the power means which is verbalized in the next corollary.
Corollary 4. Let all the hypotheses of Corollary 3 are true. Then Proof. Inequality (
18) can easily be obtained by taking
and
in (
11). □
The below corollary is the another consequence of Theorem 6 for the power means.
Corollary 5. Suppose that all the conditions of Corollary 3 are valid, then Proof. Since, the function
is 4-convex on
Therefore, utilizing (
8) while picking
and
we get (
19). □
With the help of Theorem 8, we obtain a relation for power means given in coming corollary.
Corollary 6. Presume that, the conditions of Corollary 3 are fulfilled, then Proof. Taking
and
in (
11), we acquire (
20). □
Remark 1. The analogous form of the above relations for the power means can easily be obtained by utilizing Theorem 7 and Theorem 9.
4. Applications in Information Theory
In the present section, we give some applications of the main results in information theory. The proposed applications of the main results will provide different estimates for the Csiszár and Kullback–Leibler divergences, Shannon entropy, and Bhattacharyya coefficient.
We begin this section with the definition of Csiszár divergence.
Definition 4. Let Ψ be any real valued function defined on and be arbitrary positive tuples. Then, the Csiszár divergence is defined as: The following theorem is the application of Theorem 6 for the Csiszár divergence.
Theorem 10. Assume that Ψ is any real valued function defined on such that exists and are arbitrary positive tuples. If Ψ is a 4-convex function, then Proof. Applying (
8) by choosing
and
we receive (
21). □
As an application of Theorem 8, we acquire the following relation for the Csiszár divergence.
Theorem 11. Let all the conditions of Theorem 10 be true. Then Proof. Utilizing
and
in (
11), we acquire (
22). □
The Shannon entropy is defined as:
Definition 5. For any positive probability distribution the Shannon entropy is defined by: The following corollary gives an estimate for the Shannon entropy as application of Theorem 6.
Corollary 7. Let be an arbitrary probability distribution such for each Then Proof. Consider the function
defined on
Then
which shows that
on
This confirms the 4-convexity of the said function. Therefore, take
and
for each
in (
21), we get (
23). □
The following corollary is the application of Theorem 8 for the Shannon entropy.
Corollary 8. Presume that, all the hypotheses of Corollary 7 are valid, then Proof. Since, the function
is 4-convex on
Therefore, applying (
22) by putting
and
for each
we get (
24). □
Now, we recall the definition of Kulback–Leibler divergence.
Definition 6. Let and be any positive tuples such that and Then Kullback–Leibler divergence is defined as: In the next corollary, we receive a bound for the Kulback–Leibler divergence as an application of Theorem 6.
Corollary 9. Assume that and are positive tuples such that and then Proof. Using the 4-convex function
in (
21), we obtain (
25). □
The following corollary is the application of Theorem 8 for the Kulback–Leibler divergence.
Corollary 10. Assume that, the hypotheses of Corollary 9 are true, then Proof. Inequality (
26) can easily be deduced by taking
in (
22). □
Instantly, we give the definition of Bhattacharyya coefficient.
Definition 7. Let and be any tuples with the positive entries such that and Then, the Bhattacharyya coefficient is defined by: The coming corollary provide a bound for the Bhattacharyya coefficient as an application of Theorem 6.
Corollary 11. Suppose that, all the assumptions of Corollary 9 are valid, then Proof. Let us take the function
Then
clearly
is positive on
This substantiate the 4-convexity of the aforementioned function. Therefore, the desired inequality (
27) can easily be acquired by taking
in (
21). □
The next corollary is the application of Theorem 8 for Bhattacharyya coefficient.
Corollary 12. Let the conditions of Corollary 9 be fulfilled. Then Proof. To obtain (
28), use
in (
22). □
Remark 2. The integral versions of the above aforementioned relations can also be acquired by using Theorem 7 and Theorem 9.
5. Applications for the Zipf–Mandelbrot Entropy
The Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy is one of the important tools for solving a variety of problems in diverse areas of science [
6,
13]. Particular, this entropy has extensive applications in probability and statistic [
10]. This section of the article concern to present some additional applications of main results for the Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy. To acquire the intended relations, first we discuss some basics.
For any
and
the generalized harmonic number is defined as follows:
The expression:
represents the probability mass function for the Zipf–Mandelbrot law.
The following is mathematical form of the Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy:
In the below corollary, we present an application of Theorem 6 for the Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy.
Corollary 13. Let be any positive tuple such that If and then Proof. To prove inequality (
29), consider
then clearly
for each
Therefore, we have
and
Now, use (
30)–(
32) in (
25), we acquire (
29). □
The below corollary gives another bounds for the Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy.
Corollary 14. Assume that and then Proof. To get inequality (
33), consider
and
then clearly both
and
are positive for each
Also,
and
Therefore, we have
and
Instantly, using (
34)–(
36) in (
25), we receive (
33). □
The below corollary is the application of Theorem 8.
Corollary 15. Suppose that, all the assumptions of Corollary 13 are valid, then Proof. Consider
for each
then we have
Inequality (
37) can easily be obtained by using (
30), (
31), and (
38) in (
26). □
The following corollary gives a bound for the Zipf–Mandelbrot entropy as an application of Theorem 8.
Corollary 16. Assume that and then Proof. Let us consider
and
then clearly both
and
are positive for each
such that their sums over
i is unity. Therefore, we have
Now, to deduce (
39), just use (
34), (
35), and (
40) in (
26). □
6. Conclusions
The convexity is the most powerful tools for solving a diverse type of problems in many areas of science such as in engineering, differential equations, analysis, information theory and statistics, etc. Due to the great importance and applicability, the convex functions have been generalized, refined and extended in many ways accordingly. One of the interesting generalized form of the class of the ordinary convexity is the 4-convexity. The class of ordinary convexity and its generalizations have played an unforgettable performance in the field of mathematical inequalities. There are a huge amount of inequalities which have been acquired with the help of convexity and its generalizations. In the present article, we established some new improvements of the Slater inequality by utilizing 4-convex functions. The proposed improvements are provided in both discrete and continuous versions. With the help of main results, we acquired some relations for the famous power means. The aforesaid relations are deduced by putting some particular 4-convex functions in main results. Furthermore, we parented applications of the established results in information theory in the form of bounds for Csiszár and Kullback–Leibler divergences, Shannon entropy and Bhattacharyya coefficient. Moreover, some additional applications of the acquired results are also discussed for the Zifp–Mandelbrot entropy. The idea and technique used in this article for obtaining the results for Slater’s inequality, will motivate researchers for further work on Slater’s inequality.