Interpolating Greedy and Reluctant Algorithms

Abstract

In a standard NP-complete optimization problem we introduce an interpolating algorithm between the quick decrease along the gradient (greedy dynamics) and a slow decrease close to the level curves (reluctant dynamics). We find that for a fixed elapsed computer time the best performance of the optimization is reached at a special value of the interpolation parameter, considerably improving the results of the pure cases greedy and reluctant.

9 pages. 3 figures