From its origins in the minimization of integral functionals, the notion of 'variations' has evolved greatly in connection with applications in optimization, equilibrium, and control. It refers not only to constrained movement away from a point, but also to modes of perturbation and approximation that are best describable by 'set convergence', variational convergence of functions' and the like. This book develops a unified framework and, in finite dimensions, provides a detailed exposition of variational geometry and subdifferential calculus in their current forms beyond classical and convex analysis. Also covered are set-convergence, set-valued mappings, epi-convergence, duality, maximal monotone mappings, second-order subderivatives, measurable selections and normal integrands.

From its origins in the minimization of integral functionals, the notion of variations has evolved greatly in connection with applications in optimization, equilibrium, and control. This book develops a unified framework and provides a detailed exposition of variational geometry and subdifferential calculus in their current forms beyond classical and convex analysis. Also covered are set-convergence, set-valued mappings, epi-convergence, duality, and normal integrands.