How can I translate 'Background'?

Question

Often, reading mathematical papers in English, I see at the beginning an introductory chapter called 'Background' in which it is explained the required knowledge needed to understand the paper itself. I would like to have a similar chapter in a mathematical paper I am writing in Italian. The best guess I came out with as a translation of "Background" is the word 'Preliminari', but I am unsure if this word is appropriate. The uncertainty comes from the results I obtain googling 'preliminari': something like "Preliminari sessuali", "Sesso, ecco i preliminari giusti per lui e per lei", ...Is it appropriate in the context of a paper? What alternatives are there?

Answer 1

In your specific case I would translate it with PREREQUISITI