Generalizations of Rolle’s Theorem

The classical Rolle’s theorem establishes the existence of (at least) one zero of the derivative of a continuous one-variable function on a compact interval in the real line, which attains the same value at the extremes, and it is differentiable in the interior of the interval. In this paper, we generalize the statement in four ways. First, we provide a version for functions whose domain is in a locally convex topological Hausdorff vector space, which can possibly be infinite-dimensional. Then, we deal with the functions defined in a real interval: we consider the case of unbounded intervals, the case of functions endowed with a weak derivative, and, finally, we consider the case of distributions over an open interval in the real line.