„J. Jahn, well known by his papers and books on convex analysis and optimization … wrote this interesting book that gives a clear insight into theory and application of vector optimization. It is not only a revised version of the book from 1986 … but he also extended the contents considerably … .“ (Alfred Göpfert, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1055, 2005)
„This volume is a revised and substantially enlarged version of the author’s book … . This excellent book will be very useful as an introduction to vector optimization and will also constitute a valuable reference for researchers. It will undoubtedly become … a classical reference in the field.“ (Juan-Enrique Martinez-Legaz, Mathematical Reviews, 2005c)
„The book under review is dedicated to the theory of vector optimization in general spaces. … All at all, the book highlights very well recent developments in the field of active research … . The material is well presented, preliminaries are discussed in detail, and many illustrations help to understand the complicated facts. … may be warmly recommended to graduate students and researchers in optimization, numerical mathematics, operations research, engineering and other fields which apply optimization methods.“ (C. Tammer, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, Vol. 109 (4), 2007)
In vector optimization one investigates optimal elements such as min imal, strongly minimal, properly minimal or weakly minimal elements of a nonempty subset of a partially ordered linear space. The prob lem of determining at least one of these optimal elements, if they exist at all, is also called a vector optimization problem. Problems of this type can be found not only in mathematics but also in engineer ing and economics. Vector optimization problems arise, for exam ple, in functional analysis (the Hahn-Banach theorem, the lemma of Bishop-Phelps, Ekeland's variational principle), multiobjective pro gramming, multi-criteria decision making, statistics (Bayes solutions, theory of tests, minimal covariance matrices), approximation theory (location theory, simultaneous approximation, solution of boundary value problems) and cooperative game theory (cooperative n player differential games and, as a special case, optimal control problems). In the last decade vector optimization has been extended to problems with set-valued maps. This new field of research, called set optimiza tion, seems to have important applications to variational inequalities and optimization problems with multivalued data. The roots of vector optimization go back to F. Y. Edgeworth (1881) and V. Pareto (1896) who has already given the definition of the standard optimality concept in multiobjective optimization. But in mathematics this branch of optimization has started with the leg endary paper of H. W. Kuhn and A. W. Tucker (1951). Since about v Vl Preface the end of the 60's research is intensively made in vector optimization.
