Local optima smoothing for global optimization

It is widely believed that in order to solve large scale global optimization problems an appropriate mixture of local approximation and global exploration is necessary. Local approximation, if first order information on the objective function is available, is efficiently performed by means of local optimization methods. Unfortunately, global exploration, in absence of some kind of … Read more

The global optimization of Morse clusters by potential energy transformations

The Morse potential is a simple model pair potential that has a single parameter $\rho$ which determines the width of the potential well and allows a wide variety of materials to be modelled. Morse clusters provide a particularly tough test system for global optimization algorithms, and one that is highly relevant to methods that are … Read more

A randomized global optimization method for protein-protein docking

In this paper we report results on the problem of docking two large proteins by means of a two-phase monotonic basin hopping method. Given an appropriate force field which is used to measure the interaction energy between two biomolecules which are considered as rigid bodies, we used a randomized global optimization methods based upon the … Read more

New global optima for Morse clusters at $\rho=8$

We recently discovered 5 new putative globally optimum configurations for Morse clusters at $\rho=8$. This report contains some algorithmic details as well as the structures determined with our method. CitationTechnical Report DSI 3-2003, Dipartimento di Sistemi e Informatica, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, 2003.ArticleDownload View PDF

Efficient Algorithms for Large Scale Global Optimization: Lennard-Jones clusters

A standard stochastic global optimization method is applied to the challenging problem of finding the minimum energy conformation of cluster of identical atoms interacting through the Lennard-Jones potential. The method proposed is based on the use of a two-phase local search procedure which is capable of significantly enlarge the basin of attraction of the global … Read more

The Sample Average Approximation Method for Stochastic Programs with Integer Recourse

This paper develops a solution strategy for two-stage stochastic programs with integer recourse. The proposed methodology relies on approximating the underlying stochastic program via sampling, and solving the approximate problem via a specialized optimization algorithm. We show that the proposed scheme will produce an optimal solution to the true problem with probability approaching one exponentially … Read more

Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA)

Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA) is a C-language code developed to statistically find the best global fit of a nonlinear constrained non-convex cost-function over a D-dimensional space. Citation%A L. Ingber %R Global optimization C-code %I Caltech Alumni Association %C Pasadena, CA %T Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA) %D 1993 %K 200701 %L Ingber:1993:CODE-ASA %O URL http://www.ingber.com/#ASA-CODEArticleDownload View … Read more