A discussion on variational analysis in derivative-free optimization (Q829491)

Derivative-Free Optimization (DFO) is the mathematical study of algorithms for continuous optimization that do not use first-order information. Thus, by definition, DFO studies algorithms that do not use derivatives, gradients, directional derivatives, subgradients, normal cones, tangent cones, etc. As such, it might seem that Variational Analysis would have limited value in DFO research. However, a study of DFO shows that this is a false conclusion. In fact, the many of the most successful DFO algorithms rely heavily on tools and results from Variational Analysis. In this paper, the author highlights some of this research and argue that Variational Analysis is a critical component to studying DFO.