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Given the function : $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ defined as

$f(x) = \begin{cases}\exp(-1/(x^2(1-x)^2)) &\text{for $x\in (0,1)$} \\0 &\text{otherwise} \end{cases}$

How can I formally show that this function is infinitely differentiable? This function is clearly quite difficult only on $(0,1)$ and given that $\exp(x)' = \exp(x) \cdot x'$ we have that $(-\frac{1}{x^2(1-x)^2})' = \frac{2\left(2x-1\right)}{x^3\left(x-1\right)^3}$ and this tells me that the derivative will always be of the form "exponential times fraction of polynomials". Should I use induction? Are there any cases I should watch out for?

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    $\begingroup$ Smoothness on $(0,1)$ is easy since $f$ is the composition of smooth functions. You should really be focusing on showing smoothness at $x = 0$ and $x = 1$ where smoothness is less obvious. $\endgroup$
    – Digitallis
    Jan 29, 2021 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ Any tips on how to go about that? I've tried calculating the limit of $\frac{f(0+h)-f(0)}{h}$ and $\frac{f(1+h)-f(1)}{h}$ as h goes to 0 and then applying L'Hospital but then it leads to an endless chain $\endgroup$
    – Wolf
    Jan 29, 2021 at 17:56

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Here's a solution to show that $f$ is infinitely differentiable at $x = 0$.


By definition $$ f'(0) = \lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f(h)-0}{h}$$

the limit from the left is clearly $0$ so consider $h \in (0,1)$.

Notice that forall all $x \in (0,1)$ we have

$$ \frac{-1}{x^2(1-x)^2}<\frac{-1}{x^2} < \frac{-1}{x}.$$

Therefore $$0< \frac{1}{x}\exp\frac{-1}{x^2(1-x)^2} < \frac{1}{x} e^{-1/x}$$

and we have that $f$ is differentiable at $0$ with $f'(0) = 0$ since $1/xe^{-1/x} \to 0.$


We now show that higher order derivatives at $0$ exists and are equal to $0$. That is $f^{(k)}(0) = 0.$ We will rely on induction.

We've already shown the base case $f'(0) = 0.$

Assume that $f^{(k)}(0) = 0$ then

$$ f^{(k+1)}(0) = \lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f^{(k)}(h)- f^{(k)}(0)}{h} = \lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f^{(k)}(h)}{h}.$$

The limit from the left is clearly $0$ so consider what happens for $h \in (0,1).$

I make the following claim which can easily be proven by induction

Claim: Let $g(h) = \frac{-1}{h^2(1-h)^2}.$ $$(e^{g})^{(k)} = Q_ke^{g}$$ for some rationnal function $Q_k$

It follows that

$$\frac{f^{(k)}(h)}{h} = \tilde Q_k(h) \exp {g(h)}$$

for some rationnal function $\tilde Q_k = Q_k/h$. By what was done previously we have

$$ \vert \tilde Q_k(h) \exp g(h) \vert \leq \vert \tilde Q_k (h)\exp \frac{-1}{x}\vert$$

by definition we can find $a_i, b_i$ such that

$$ \tilde Q_k(h ) = \frac{b_nh^n + ... + b_1h + b_0 }{a_mh^m +... + a_1h + a_0}$$

If $a_0 \neq 0$ then $\tilde Q_k \exp{-1/x}$ converges to $0$ and we are done.

If $a_0 = 0$ then we can factor out a power of $h$, $h^l$ in the denominator. By taking $l$ as large as possible for this property we have

$$ \lim_{h \to 0} h^{l+1} \tilde Q_k(h) = 0$$

Hence for $h$ small enough we have $\vert \tilde Q_k(h)\vert < \vert \frac{1}{h^{l+1}}\vert$

Therefore for small values of $h$ we have

$$ 0 \leq \left\vert \frac{f^{(k)}(h)}{h}\right \vert \leq \left\vert \frac{1}{h^{l+1}}e^{-1/h}\right\vert.$$

Since the RHS converges to $0$ as $h \to 0$ we deduce that

$$ f^{(k+1)}(0) = 0.$$


To show smoothness at $x = 1$ I suspect (haven't checked) you can use similar arguments but by using the inequality

$$ \exp \frac{-1}{x^2(1-x)^2} \leq \exp \frac{-1}{1-x}$$

and factoring out powers of $(1-h)$ instead of powers of $h$ in the latter part.

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