
Paul Coddington, NPAC
Enzo Marinari, Physics


Studying and testing parallel random number generators 
------------------------------------------------------

Finding reliable random number generators is a notoriously difficult problem,
especially for parallel computers. Some sequential random number generators 
which pass standard statistical tests give incorrect results when used in 
Monte Carlo simulations. A variety of parallel random number generators will
be studied and tested using parallel Monte Carlo algorithms. 



Optimization using simulated tempering
--------------------------------------

Simulated tempering is a recent technique developed for computational physics 
problems. It is closely related to simulated annealing, which has been applied
with great success to general optimization problems. We will investigate the
use of simulated tempering for optimization. The main problems to be tackled
include dynamic adjustment of parameters, and the handling of large systems.


