1 Introduction

The following definition is well known in the literature: a function f:IR, IR, is said to be convex on I if the inequality

f ( t x + ( 1 t ) y ) tf(x)+(1t)f(y)

holds for all x,yI and t[0,1]. Geometrically, this means that if P, Q and R are three distinct points on the graph of f with Q between P and R, then Q is on or below the chord PR.

In their paper [1], Hudzik and Maligranda considered, among others, the class of functions which are s-convex in the second sense. This class is defined in the following way: a function f:[0,)R is said to be s-convex in the second sense if

f ( t x + ( 1 t ) y ) t s f(x)+ ( 1 t ) s f(y)

holds for all x,y[0,), t[0,1] and for some fixed s(0,1]. The class of s-convex functions in the second sense is usually denoted by K s 2 .

It can be easily seen that for s=1 s-convexity reduces to the ordinary convexity of functions defined on [0,).

In the same paper [1], Hudzik and Maligranda proved that if s(0,1), f K s 2 implies f([0,))[0,), i.e., they proved that all functions from K s 2 , s(0,1), are nonnegative.

Example 1 [1]

Let s(0,1) and a,b,cR. We define the function f:[0,)R as

f(t)={ a , t = 0 , b t s + c , t > 0 .

It can be easily checked that

  1. (i)

    if b0 and 0ca, then f K s 2 ,

  2. (ii)

    if b>0 and c<0, then f K s 2 .

Many important inequalities are established for the class of convex functions, but one of the most famous is the so-called Hermite-Hadamard’s inequality (or Hadamard’s inequality). This double inequality is stated as follows: Let f be a convex function on [a,b]R, where ab. Then

f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f(x)dx f ( a ) + f ( b ) 2 .

For several recent results concerning Hadamard’s inequality, we refer the interested reader to [25].

In [6] Dragomir and Fitzpatrick proved a variant of Hadamard’s inequality which holds for s-convex functions in the second sense.

Theorem 1 Suppose that f:[0,)[0,) is an s-convex function in the second sense, where s(0,1), and let a,b[0,), a<b. If fL([a,b]), then the following inequalities hold:

2 s 1 f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f(x)dx f ( a ) + f ( b ) s + 1 .
(1.1)

The constant k=1/(s+1) is best possible in the second inequality in [7].

The above inequalities are sharp. For recent results and generalizations concerning s-convex functions, see [813].

Along this paper, we consider a real interval IR, and we denote that I is the interior of I.

The main aim of this paper is to establish new inequalities of Hermite-Hadamard type for the class of functions whose second derivatives at certain powers are s-convex functions in the second sense.

2 Main results

To prove our main results, we consider the following lemma.

Lemma 1 Let f:IRR be a differentiable mapping on I where a,bI with a<b. If f L[a,b], then the following equality holds:

1 b a a b f ( x ) d x f ( a + b 2 ) = ( b a ) 2 16 [ 0 1 t 2 f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) d t + 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) d t ] .
(2.1)

Proof By integration by parts, we have the following identity:

I 1 = 0 1 t 2 f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) d t = t 2 2 b a f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | 0 1 4 b a 0 1 t f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) d t = 2 b a f ( a + b 2 ) 4 b a [ t 2 b a f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | 0 1 2 b a 0 1 f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) d t ] = 2 b a f ( a + b 2 ) 8 ( b a ) 2 f ( a + b 2 ) + 8 ( b a ) 2 0 1 f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) d t .
(2.2)

Using the change of the variable x=t a + b 2 +(1t)a for t[0,1] and multiplying the both sides (2.2) by ( b a ) 2 16 , we obtain

( b a ) 2 16 0 1 t 2 f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) d t = b a 8 f ( a + b 2 ) 1 2 f ( a + b 2 ) + 1 b a a a + b 2 f ( x ) d x .
(2.3)

Similarly, we observe that

( b a ) 2 16 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) d t = b a 8 f ( a + b 2 ) 1 2 f ( a + b 2 ) + 1 b a a + b 2 b f ( x ) d x .
(2.4)

Thus, adding (2.3) and (2.4), we get the required identity (2.1). □

Theorem 2 Let f:I[0,)R be a differentiable mapping on I such that f L[a,b], where a,bI with a<b. If |f| is s-convex on [a,b], for some fixed s(0,1], then the following inequality holds:

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 8 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) { | f ( a ) | + ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) | f ( a + b 2 ) | + | f ( b ) | }
(2.5)
[ 1 + ( s + 2 ) 2 1 s ] ( b a ) 2 8 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) { | f ( a ) | + | f ( b ) | } .
(2.6)

Proof From Lemma 1, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 [ 0 1 t 2 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | d t + 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | d t ] ( b a ) 2 16 0 1 t 2 [ t s | f ( a + b 2 ) | + ( 1 t ) s | f ( a ) | ] d t + ( b a ) 2 16 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 [ t s | f ( b ) | + ( 1 t ) s | f ( a + b 2 ) | ] d t = ( b a ) 2 16 [ 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | + 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( a ) | ] + ( b a ) 2 16 [ 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( b ) | + 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | ] = ( b a ) 2 8 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) { | f ( a ) | + ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) | f ( a + b 2 ) | + | f ( b ) | } ,
(2.7)

where we have used the fact that

0 1 t 2 ( 1 t ) s d t = 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 t s d t = 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) , 0 1 t s + 2 d t = 0 1 ( 1 t ) s + 2 d t = 1 s + 3 .

This proves inequality (2.5). To prove (2.6), and since | f | is s-convex on [a,b], for any t[0,1], then by (1.1) we have

2 s 1 f ( a + b 2 ) f ( a ) + f ( b ) s + 1 .
(2.8)

Combining (2.7) and (2.8), we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 8 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) { | f ( a ) | + ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) | f ( a + b 2 ) | + | f ( b ) | } ( b a ) 2 8 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) { | f ( a ) | + ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) 2 1 s f ( a ) + f ( b ) s + 1 + | f ( b ) | } = [ 1 + ( s + 2 ) 2 1 s ] ( b a ) 2 8 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) { | f ( a ) | + | f ( b ) | } ,

which proves inequality (2.6), and thus the proof is completed. □

Corollary 1 In Theorem  2, if we choose s=1, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 192 { | f ( a ) | + 6 | f ( a + b 2 ) | + | f ( b ) | } ( b a ) 2 48 { | f ( a ) | + | f ( b ) | } .
(2.9)

The next theorem gives a new upper bound of the left Hadamard inequality for s-convex mappings.

Theorem 3 Let f:I[0,)R be a differentiable mapping on I such that f L[a,b], where a,bI with a<b. If | f | q is s-convex on [a,b], for some fixed s(0,1] and q>1 with 1 p + 1 q =1, then the following inequality holds:

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p ( 1 s + 1 ) 1 q × [ ( | f ( a ) | q + | f ( a + b 2 ) | q ) 1 q + ( | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q ] .
(2.10)

Proof Suppose that p>1. From Lemma 1 and using the Hölder inequality, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 [ 0 1 t 2 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | d t + 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | d t ] ( b a ) 2 16 ( 0 1 t 2 p d t ) 1 p ( 0 1 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | q d t ) 1 q + ( b a ) 2 16 ( 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 p d t ) 1 p ( 0 1 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | q d t ) 1 q .

Because | f | q is s-convex, we have

0 1 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | q dt 1 s + 1 { | f ( a ) | q + | f ( a + b 2 ) | q }

and

0 1 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | q dt 1 s + 1 { | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + | f ( b ) | q } .

By a simple computation,

0 1 t 2 p dt= 1 2 p + 1

and

0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 p dt= 0 1 ( 1 t ) 2 p dt= 1 2 p + 1 .

Therefore, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p ( 1 s + 1 ) 1 q × [ ( | f ( a ) | q + | f ( a + b 2 ) | q ) 1 q + ( | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q ] .

This completes the proof. □

Corollary 2 Let f:I[0,)R be a differentiable mapping on I such that f L[a,b], where a,bI with a<b. If | f | q is s-convex on [a,b], for some fixed s(0,1] and q>1 with 1 p + 1 q =1, then the following inequality holds:

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p ( 1 s + 1 ) 2 q × { 2 1 s q + ( 2 1 s + s + 1 ) 1 q } [ | f ( a ) | + | f ( b ) | ] .

Proof We consider inequality (2.10), and since | f | q is s-convex on [a,b], then by (1.1) we have

2 s 1 f ( a + b 2 ) f ( a ) + f ( b ) s + 1 .

Therefore

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p ( 1 s + 1 ) 2 q × [ ( { 2 1 s + s + 1 } | f ( a ) | q + 2 1 s | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q + ( 2 1 s | f ( a ) | q + { 2 1 s + s + 1 } | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q ] .

We let a 1 =( 2 1 s +s+1)| f (a) | q , b 1 = 2 1 s | f (b) | q , a 2 = 2 1 s | f (a) | q and b 2 =( 2 1 s +s+1)| f (b) | q . Here, 0<1/q<1 for q>1. Using the fact

i = 1 n ( a i + b i ) r i = 1 n a i r + i = 1 n b i r

for 0<r<1, a 1 , a 2 ,, a n 0 and b 1 , b 2 ,, b n 0, we obtain the inequalities

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p ( 1 s + 1 ) 2 q × [ ( { 2 1 s + s + 1 } | f ( a ) | q + 2 1 s | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q + ( 2 1 s | f ( a ) | q + { 2 1 s + s + 1 } | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q ] ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p ( 1 s + 1 ) 2 q × { 2 1 s q + ( 2 1 s + s + 1 ) 1 q } [ | f ( a ) | + | f ( b ) | ] .

 □

Theorem 4 Let f:I[0,)R be a differentiable mapping on I such that f L[a,b], where a,bI with a<b. If | f | q , q1 is s-convex on [a,b], for some fixed s(0,1], then the following inequality holds:

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 3 ) 1 p { ( 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( a ) | q + 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | q ) 1 q + ( 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q } .

Proof Suppose that p1. From Lemma 1 and using the power mean inequality, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 [ 0 1 t 2 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | d t + 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | d t ] ( b a ) 2 16 ( 0 1 t 2 d t ) 1 p ( 0 1 t 2 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | q d t ) 1 q + ( b a ) 2 16 ( 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 d t ) 1 p ( 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | q d t ) 1 q .

Because | f | q is s-convex, we have

0 1 t 2 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | q dt 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f (a) | q + 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | q

and

0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | q d t 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( b ) | q .

Therefore, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 ( 1 3 ) 1 p { ( 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( a ) | q + 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | q ) 1 q + ( 1 s + 3 | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + 2 ( s + 1 ) ( s + 2 ) ( s + 3 ) | f ( b ) | q ) 1 q } .

 □

Corollary 3 In Theorem  4, if we choose s=1, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 48 ( 3 4 ) 1 q { ( | f ( a ) | q 3 + | f ( a + b 2 ) | q ) 1 q + ( | f ( a + b 2 ) | q + | f ( b ) | q 3 ) 1 q } .
(2.11)

Now, we give the following Hadamard-type inequality for s-concave mappings.

Theorem 5 Let f:I[0,)R be a differentiable mapping on I such that f L[a,b], where a,bI with a<b. If | f | q is s-concave on [a,b], for some fixed s(0,1] and q>1 with 1 p + 1 q =1, then the following inequality holds:

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 2 s 1 q ( 2 p + 1 ) 1 / p { | f ( 3 a + b 4 ) | + | f ( a + 3 b 4 ) | } .

Proof From Lemma 1 and using the Hölder inequality for q>1 and 1 p + 1 q =1, we obtain

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 [ 0 1 t 2 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | d t + 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | d t ] ( b a ) 2 16 ( 0 1 t 2 p d t ) 1 p ( 0 1 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | q d t ) 1 q + ( b a ) 2 16 ( 0 1 ( t 1 ) 2 p d t ) 1 p ( 0 1 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | q d t ) 1 q .
(2.12)

Since | f | q is s-concave, using inequality (1.1), we have

0 1 | f ( t a + b 2 + ( 1 t ) a ) | q dt 2 s 1 | f ( 3 a + b 4 ) | q
(2.13)

and

0 1 | f ( t b + ( 1 t ) a + b 2 ) | q dt 2 s 1 | f ( a + 3 b 4 ) | q .
(2.14)

From (2.12)-(2.14), we get

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 2 s 1 q ( 2 p + 1 ) 1 / p { | f ( 3 a + b 4 ) | + | f ( a + 3 b 4 ) | } ,

which completes the proof. □

Corollary 4 In Theorem  5, if we choose s=1 and 1 3 < ( 1 2 p + 1 ) 1 p <1, p>1, we have

| f ( a + b 2 ) 1 b a a b f ( x ) d x | ( b a ) 2 16 { | f ( 3 a + b 4 ) | + | f ( a + 3 b 4 ) | } .
(2.15)

3 Applications to special means

We now consider the means for arbitrary real numbers α, β (αβ). We take:

  1. (1)

    Arithmetic mean:

    A(α,β)= α + β 2 ,α,β R + ;
  2. (2)

    Logarithmic mean:

    L(α,β)= α β ln | α | ln | β | ,|α||β|,α,β0,α,β R + ;

Generalized log-mean:

L n (α,β)= [ β n + 1 α n + 1 ( n + 1 ) ( β α ) ] 1 n ,nZ{1,0},α,β R + .

Now, using the results of Section 2, we give some applications to special means of real numbers.

Proposition 1 Let 0<a<b and s(0,1). Then we have

| A s (a,b) L s s (a,b)| | s ( s 1 ) | ( b a ) 2 192 { a s 2 + 6 ( a + b 2 ) s 2 + b s 2 } .

Proof The assertion follows from (2.9) applied to the s-convex function in the second sense f:[0,1][0,1], f(x)= x s . □

Proposition 2 Let 0<a<b and s(0,1). Then we have

| A s ( a , b ) L s s ( a , b ) | | s ( s 1 ) | ( b a ) 2 48 ( 3 4 ) q { [ a q ( s 2 ) 3 + ( a + b 2 ) q ( s 2 ) ] 1 q + [ ( a + b 2 ) q ( s 2 ) + b q ( s 2 ) 3 ] 1 q } .

Proof The assertion follows from (2.11) applied to the s-convex function in the second sense f:[0,1][0,1], f(x)= x s . □

Proposition 3 Let 0<a<b and p>1. Then we have

| A s (a,b) L s s (a,b)| ( b a ) 2 { 1 ( 3 a + b ) 2 + 1 ( a + 3 b ) 2 } .

Proof The inequality follows from (2.15) applied to the concave function in the second sense f:[a;b]R, f(x)=lnx. The details are omitted. □