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- noun A randomized improvement algorithm, analagous to the metalworking process
annealing .
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seanahan commented on the word simulated annealing
A technique used in mathematics and artificial intelligence. Sounds like something someone with anorexia does.
July 8, 2007
sionnach commented on the word simulated annealing
Simulated annealing (SA) is a generic probabilistic meta-algorithm for the global optimization problem, namely locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete (e.g., all tours that visit a given set of cities). In favorable cases, simulated annealing may be more effective than exhaustive enumeration of the search space.
The name and inspiration come from annealing in metallurgy, a technique involving heating and controlled cooling of a material to increase the size of its crystals and reduce their defects. The heat causes the atoms to become unstuck from their initial positions (a local minimum of the internal energy) and wander randomly through states of higher energy; the slow cooling gives them more chances of finding configurations with lower internal energy than the initial one.
November 9, 2007