Lipschitz continuity of a generalized Rayleigh quotient

I am thinking about the Lipschitz continuity of a generalized Rayleigh quotient: $f(x)=\frac{x^\top Ax}{x^\top Bx}$ with the constraint $||x||\geq c$, where both $A$ and $B$ are positive definite matrices, $c$ is some positive constant, and I have the following questions:

1. If $f(x)$ is Lipschitz continuous with respect to $\ell_2$ ($\ell_1$) norm?

2. If so, how to compute the Lipschitz constant $L$?

It seems that it's difficult to compute $L$ directly using the definition of Lipschitz constant. I read somewhere that if $f(x)$ is convex, then $L\geq ||z||_*$ for all $x$, where $z$ is the gradient of $f(x)$: $z=\nabla f(x)$, and $||z||_*$ is the dual norm of $z$ (For $\ell_2$ norm, $||z||_*=||z||$.) .

So I am wondering if I can compute $L$ by $L=\sup \{\nabla f(x) ： \nabla f(x)=\frac{2Ax(x^\top Bx)-2x^\top AxBx}{(x^\top Bx)^2}\}$ ?

Even though it's true, I don't know what to do next step. How can I prove if $||\nabla f(x)||_*$ is bounded and how to compute its upper bound?

In addition, we know that a generalized Rayleigh quotient is not convex, can we still use $||\nabla f(x)||_*$ to compute its Lipschitz constant?

Thanks.

The function $f$ is homogeneous of degree zero: $f(tx)=f(x)$ for all $t>0$. This implies that its gradient (with respect to whatever norm) is homogeneous of degree $-1$, that is $\nabla f(tx)=t^{-1}\nabla f(x)$ for all $t>0$.

The gradient is bounded on every set of the form $\{x:\|x\|\ge r\}$ with $r>0$. Indeed, it is bounded on the unit sphere by some constant $M$ (by continuity and compactness), hence bounded by $M/r$ on the aforementioned set.

One can estimate $M$ (the supremum of the gradient on the unit sphere) as follows: $$\|\nabla f(x)\| \le \left\|\frac{2Ax }{x^\top Bx}\right\|+ \left\| \frac{2x^\top AxBx}{(x^\top Bx)^2}\right\|\le 2\|A\|\,\|B^{-1}\|+2\|A\|\,\|B\|\,\|B^{-1}\|^2$$

In a convex domain, the supremum of the gradient equals the Lipschitz constant. The set $\{x:\|x\|\ge r\}$ is not convex, but it is quasiconvex, namely: any two points $a,b$ can be joined by a curve $\gamma$ of length at most $\frac{\pi}{2}|a-b|$ (an arc of a circle will do). Integrating the gradient along such a curve gives a bound for the Lipschitz constant: $$|f(a)-f(b)|\le \int_\gamma \|\nabla f\| \le \frac{\pi}{2}|a-b|\sup\|\nabla f\|$$ Hence $L\le \frac{\pi}{2}\sup\|\nabla f\|$.

• Thanks for pointing out that, @Behaviour. I omitted a constraint: $||x||\leq c$. – user3138073 Dec 26 '14 at 4:48
• That does not help because the gradient blows up near the origin. If you had $\|x\|\ge c$, the function would be Lipschitz there. – user147263 Dec 26 '14 at 4:54
• Yes. It should be $||x||\geq c$... Given this constraint, how can we compute the Lipschitz constant $L$? – user3138073 Dec 26 '14 at 4:59
• I guess I can just let the constraint be $||x||=c$. Am I right? – user3138073 Dec 26 '14 at 5:01
• Yes, the supremum on $\|x\|=c$ is the supremum on $\|x\|\ge 1$. Also, you might as well take $c=1$ in the calculation instead of carrying it around; it contributes the factor of $1/c$ to the final result. – user147263 Dec 26 '14 at 5:02