Differentiability criterion
Characterization of differentiability via a best linear approximation.
Differentiability criterion
Differentiability criterion: Let be an open set , let , and fix . The following are equivalent:
- is differentiable at (in the Fréchet sense).
- There exists a linear map such that
In this case, is unique and is denoted .
This formulation says that differentiability is exactly the existence of a first-order linear approximation with an error term that is . In the one-dimensional case , it is equivalent to the existence of the usual derivative at .