Chapter Five Second Order Conditions N'y a-t-il pas l` une lacune a remplir? a Isn't there a gap to be filled? J. Liouville · The second order conditions are essentially the only obstructions to local optimality besides first order conditions. 5.0 SUMMARY Second order conditions distinguish whether a stationary point is a local maximum or a local minimum. However, usually they are not very helpful for solving concrete optimization problems. The follow-