Minimax Theory and its Applications 01 (2016), No. 1, i
Copyright Heldermann Verlag 2016
Editorial
Biagio Ricceri
Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università di Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
mta@dmi.unict.it
After a process started about two years ago, the first issue of Minimax Theory and its Applications is now appearing. This is the first journal entirely devoted to such a subject which should be understood in the broadest and inclusive sense. Actually, I mean minimax theory as the complex of any mathematical situation where, given two sets X, Y, an ordered set V and a function f from X × Y to V, one has to consider objects of the type infX supY f or supY infX f.
So, I think that the first and most important reason for a new specialized journal is satisfied, that is: to provide, for the first time, an outlet for leading, high-quality papers in the field which, otherwise, would be scattered throughout the literature. Though the journal is open to host developments of the theory in new or not sufficiently explored directions, the real focus is on applications. Actually, the journal should be primarily understood as a forum for mathematical applications of minimax results, methods and techniques to topics from optimization theory, calculus of variations, mathematical programming, game theory, control theory, convex analysis, functional analysis, nonlinear analysis, non-smooth analysis, set-valued analysis and variational analysis.
As a consequence, those papers which are mere generalizations or extensions to more and more abstract settings of classical results and which do not provide any significant application, lie automatically out of the scope of the journal.
The composition of the Editorial Board (to each member of which I would like to express my gratitude) well reflects the broadness of the scope of the journal. Actually, one finds there very authoritative experts who cover a wide range of topics going from the most classical ones to minimax methods in critical point theory and Hamilton-Jacobi equations.
Finally, I would like to thank N. Heldermann, the Publisher, for his constant and friendly support.
Biagio Ricceri, January 2016.