Sensitivity analysis, optimization, and global critical points

The title of this paper suggests that sensitivity analysis, optimization, and the search for critical points in phase-space are somehow related; the existence of such a kinship has been undoubtedly felt by many of the nuclear engineering practitioners of optimization and/or sensitivity analysis. However, a unified framework for displaying this relationship has so far been lacking, especially in a global setting. The objective of this paper is to present such a global and unified framework and to suggest, within this framework, a new direction for future developments for both sensitivity analysis and optimization of the large nonlinear systems encountered in practical problems