# On the Quality of First-Order Approximation of Functions with H"older Continuous Gradient

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.07946 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07946/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jan 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Optimization without Retraction on the Random Generalized Stiefel Manifold](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.01702/) (2024)
- [Convergence Analysis of Fractional Gradient Descent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.18426/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We show that H"older continuity of the gradient is not only a sufficient condition, but also a necessary condition for the existence of a global upper bound on the error of the first-order Taylor approximation. We also relate this global upper bound to the H"older constant of the gradient. This relation is expressed as an interval, depending on the H"older constant, in which the error of the first-order Taylor approximation is guaranteed to be. We show that, for the Lipschitz continuous case, the interval cannot be reduced. An application to the norms of quadratic forms is proposed, which allows us to derive a novel characterization of Euclidean norms.