Basic HTML version of Foils prepared 15 March 1996

Foil 9 Typical Formalism for Physical Optimization

From Physical Optimization and Physical Computation CPSP713 Case studies in Computational Science -- Spring Semester 1996. by Geoffrey C. Fox
Minimize E = E(parameters y)
y can be continuous or discrete, or a mix
Introduce a fake temperature T and set b = 1/T
  • Often T ~ distance scale at which you look at problem
Probability of state y = exp(-bE)/Z where
As b ® ¥, minimum E (ground state) dominates
Find y(T) by minimizing Free Energy
F = E - TS = -1/b log Z

Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse University, npac@npac.syr.edu

If you have any comments about this server, send e-mail to webmaster@npac.syr.edu.

Page produced by wwwfoil on Sun Feb 22 1998