Lipschitz B-Vex Functions and Nonsmooth Programming

In this paper, the equivalence between the class of B-vex functions and that of quasiconvex functions is proved. Necessary and sufficient conditions, under which a locally Lipschitz function is B-vex, are established in terms of the Clarke subdifferential. Regularity of locally Lipschitz B-vex functions is discussed. Furthermore, under appropriate conditions, a necessary optimality condition of the Slater type and a sufficient optimality condition are obtained for a nonsmooth programming problem involving B-vex functions.