Statistical Mechanics algorithm for Monte Carlo optimization
DOI: 10.1063/1.2915086
The traveling‐salesman problem is the classic example of a class of recalcitrant combinatorial‐optimization tasks (the “NP‐complete” problems) for whose exact solution the only known algorithms require a number of steps that grows at least exponentially with the number of elements in the problem. Finding, by brute force, the shortest path by which a traveling salesman can complete a tour of N cities requires compiling a list of
