{
  "id": "cond-mat/0406543",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2004-06-23T03:32:57.000Z",
  "updated": "2005-02-28T15:31:50.000Z",
  "title": "Comparing extremal and thermal Explorations of Energy Landscapes",
  "authors": [
    "Stefan Boettcher",
    "Paolo Sibani"
  ],
  "comment": "RevTex4, 11 pages, 24 postscript figures included, to appear in EPJB; see http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher/ for related information",
  "journal": "European Physics Journal B 44, 317-326 (2005).",
  "doi": "10.1140/epjb/e2005-00131-6",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.dis-nn"
  ],
  "abstract": "Using a non-thermal local search, called Extremal Optimization (EO), in conjunction with a recently developed scheme for classifying the valley structure of complex systems, we analyze a short-range spin glass. In comparison with earlier studies using a thermal algorithm with detailed balance, we determine which features of the landscape are algorithm dependent and which are inherently geometrical. Apparently a characteristic for any local search in complex energy landscapes, the time series of successive energy records found by EO also is characterized approximately by a log-Poisson statistics. Differences in the results provide additional insights into the performance of EO. In contrast with a thermal search, the extremal search visits dramatically higher energies while returning to more widely separated low-energy configurations. Two important properties of the energy landscape are independent of either algorithm: first, to find lower energy records, progressively higher energy barriers need to be overcome. Second, the Hamming distance between two consecutive low-energy records is linearly related to the height of the intervening barrier.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2005-02-28T15:31:50.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "energy landscape",
      "thermal explorations",
      "comparing extremal",
      "higher energy barriers",
      "search visits dramatically higher energies"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "RevTeX",
      "pages": 11,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}