Parallel Metropolis Algorithm

The Metropolis algorithm for a spin model is well suited to parallelism, since it is

• regular --- so can use standard data decomposition of the lattice onto the processors and get good load balance
• local --- the update of a site depends only on its nearest neighbors, so only local communication is required

However, cannot update all sites at the same time. This would violate detailed balance, since a site and its nearest neighbors are dependent, and thus must be updated separately.