This book offers an introduction to optimization theory in normed spaces. The topics covered include existence results, various differentiability notions together with optimality conditions, the contingent cone, a generalization of the Lagrange multiplier rule, duality theory, extended semidefinite optimization, and an investigation of linear quadratic and time minimal control problems. The 4^th edition of this book has been extensively revised and a new chapter on discrete-continuous optimization has been added.

Johannes Jahn is professor emeritus at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany). His research interests are theory and numerical methods in nonlinear optimization, vector optimization and set optimization. Johannes Jahn is the editor of the book series on "Vector Optimization" published with Springer.

This book serves as an introductory text to optimization theory in normed spaces and covers all areas of nonlinear optimization. It presents fundamentals with particular emphasis on the application to problems in the calculus of variations, approximation and optimal control theory. The reader is expected to have a basic knowledge of linear functional analysis.

Introduction and Problem Formulation.- Existence Theorems for Minimal Points.- Generalized Derivatives.- Tangent Cones.- Generalized Lagrange Multiplier Rule.- Duality.- Application to Extended Semidefinite Optimization.- Extension to Discrete-Continuous Problems.- Direct Treatment of Special Optimization Problems.