Vector Optimization with Domination Structures: Variational Principles and Applications

This paper addresses a large class of vector optimization problems in infinite-dimensional spaces with respect to two important binary relations derived from domination structures. Motivated by theoretical challenges as well as by applications to some models in behavioral sciences, we establish new variational principles that can be viewed as far-going extensions of the Ekeland variational principle to cover domination vector settings. Our approach combines advantages of both primal and dual techniques in variational analysis with providing useful suficient conditions for the existence of variational traps in behavioral science models with variable domination structures.