Richard Frost

Facts, Conjectures, and Improvements for Simulated Annealing

From the Publisher: Simulated annealing has proved to be an easy and reliable method for finding optimal values of a problem in cases where there is no road map to possible solutions. Facts, Conjectures, and Improvements for Simulated Annealing offers an introduction to this topic for novices and provides an informative review of the area for the more expert reader. This book brings together for the first time many of the theoretical foundations for improvements to algorithms for global optimization that until now existed only in scattered research articles. The method described in this book operates by simulating the cooling of a (usually fictitious) physical system whose possible energies correspond to the values of the objective function being minimized. The analogy works because physical systems occupy only states with the lowest energy as the temperature is lowered to absolute zero. his book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and for professionals in a wide variety of subject areas: bioinformatics, chemistry, computer science, engineering, finance, geology, mathematics, and physics.

Shapes of completely wetted two‐dimensional powder compacts for applications to sintering

We discuss the equilibrium shapes associated with complete wetting of two‐dimensional solids. We neglect effects due to incomplete wetting or disjoining pressure and argue that such neglect is a good approximation for a description of homogeneous, solid‐state sintering. The examples treated are building blocks for describing sintering processes. Analytical formulas are derived that describe the filling of various prototypical cavities which can be combined to yield extended realistic systems. The intricate consequences of the requirement of global equilibrium are discussed including questions of bridge formation and competition between different regions.