Towards Evolutionary Optimization Using the Ising Model

Abstract

In this paper, we study the problem of finding the global minima of a given function. Specifically, we consider complicated functions with numerous local minima, as is often the case for real-world data mining losses. We do so by applying a model from theoretical physics to create an Ising model-based evolutionary optimization algorithm. Our algorithm creates stable regions of local optima and a high potential for improvement between these regions. This enables the accurate identification of global minima, surpassing comparable methods, and has promising applications to ensembles.