README.md

Metropolis MC + Simulated Annealing on Ackley's Function

A simple program that runs a Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm with or without simulated annealing on Ackley's function. It optionally generates an output csv file and different plots.

Running, the easy way:

cargo run <param file name> [options]

cargo run -- --aex // run pure Ackley examples

Building:

Build and run optimized artifacts (e.g. for external benchmarking):

cargo build -r
target/release/ackley_mc <param file name> [options]

Testing/Benchmarking:

Running unit tests: cargo test

Running benchmarks: cargo bench

Parameter file format

Each line in the parameter file consists of a name (type string) and value separated by a whitespace. They are listed in the following:

• ini_temp, final_temp (float): initial and final temperature. same for no simulated annealing
• n_step (integer): number of steps
• x_ini (comma-separated list of floats): initial x value for each dimension
• x_delta (float): (initial) step size
• seed (integer) random number seed for reproducibility
• foutname (string): the name of output file(s)

All numeric values need to be positive. An example parameter file can be found in examples/params.

Requirements

• gnuplot for the benchmarking library
• openssl developer tools
• Helpful: rustup

Acknowledgements

Based on an assignment by Prof. A. Torda from the Biomolecular Modeling Group at the ZBH, UHH