Summary: Background: study of the ground states of
disordered systems (statistical physics) is re­
lated to probabilistic analysis of optimiza­
tion problems (computer science).
Define prob. dist. on configurations x by
ß T (x) = K T exp(\GammaH(x)=T ):
For T = 0 the dist. lives on the ground states
where H(x) is minimized.
ordered system: H(x) is simple function of x
and a few numerical parameters.
disordered system: H = H(x; `) for some ran­
dom environment `.
3 different angles on ``ground states of a dis­
ordered system''.
(C.S.) Study average time­complexity of some
algorithm for finding x(`) := arg minx H(x; `).
(Math.) Study dist. of H \Lambda (`) = minx H(x; `).
(Stat. Phys.) Study structure of typical
optimal configurations x(`).
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Source: Aldous, David J. - Department of Statistics, University of California at Berkeley

Collections: Mathematics