P-Distances, Q-Distances and a Generalized Ekeland's Variational Principle in Uniform Spaces

In this paper, we attempt to give a unified approach to the existing several versions of Ekeland＇s variational principle. In the framework of uniiorm spaces, we introduce p-distances and more generally, q-distances. Then we introduce a new type of completeness for uniform spaces, i.e., sequential completeness with respect to a q-distance （particularly, a p-distance）, which is a very extensive concept of completeness. By using q-distances and the new type of completeness, we prove a generalized Takahashi＇s nonconvex minimization theorem, a generalized Ekeland＇s variational principle and a generalized Caristi＇s fixed point theorem. Moreover, we show that the above three theorems are equivalent to each other. From the generalized Ekeland＇s variational principle, we deduce a number of particular versions of Ekeland＇s principle, which include many known versions of the principle and their improvements.