Optimality Conditions and Complexity for Non-Lipschitz Constrained Optimization Problems

In this paper, we consider a class of nonsmooth, nonconvex constrained optimization problems where the objective function may be not Lipschitz continuous and the feasible set is a general closed convex set. Using the theory of the generalized directional derivative and the Clarke tangent cone, we derive a first order necessary optimality condition for local minimizers of the problem, and define the generalized stationary point of it. The generalized stationary point is the Clarke stationary point when the objective function is Lipschitz continuous at this point, and the scaled stationary point in the existing literature when the objective function is not Lipschitz continuous at this point. We prove the consistency between the generalized directional derivative and the limit of the classic directional derivatives associated with the smoothing function. Moreover we present the computational complexity and lower bound theory of the problem.