Optimization in cascaded Boltzmann machines with a temperature gradient: an alternative to simulated annealing
James P. Coughlin, Robert H. Baran · 1991
Boltzmannmachines can be series-coupled with one-way retinotopic connections to produce good (suboptimal) solutions to classic optimization problems.Each isothermal Bokzmann machine in the series has a lower temperature than the one which drives it through excitatory spanning links.This scheme is an alternative to the usual simulated annealing approach in which a single network is cooled over the course of time.The simplest case features two identical subnets, one at a positive temperature and the other at zero temperature.Its performance in solving n-to-n assignment probems is compared to that obtained by simulated annealing with a geometric cooling schedule.