%0 Journal Article
%T Physics-Inspired Optimization Algorithms: A Survey
%A Anupam Biswas
%A K. K. Mishra
%A Shailesh Tiwari
%A A. K. Misra
%J Journal of Optimization
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/438152
%X Natural phenomenon can be used to solve complex optimization problems with its excellent facts, functions, and phenomenon. In this paper, a survey on physics-based algorithm is done to show how these inspirations led to the solution of well-known optimization problem. The survey is focused on inspirations that are originated from physics, their formulation into solutions, and their evolution with time. Comparative studies of these noble algorithms along with their variety of applications have been done throughout this paper. 1. Introduction Leonid Kantorovich introduced linear programming for optimizing production in plywood industry in 1939 and probably it was the first time the term optimization of a process was used, though Fermat and Lagrange used calculus for finding optima and Newton and Gauss proposed methods for moving towards an optimum. Every technological process has to achieve optimality in terms of time and complexity and this led the researchers to design and obtain best possible or better solutions. In previous studies, several mathematical solutions were provided by various researchers such as LP [1], NLP [2] to solve optimization problems. The complexity of the proposed mathematical solutions is very high which requires enormous amount of computational work. Therefore, alternative solutions with lower complexity are appreciated. With this quest, nature-inspired solutions are developed such as GA [3], PSO [4], SA [5], and HS [6]. These nature-inspired metaheuristic solutions became very popular as the algorithms provided are much better in terms of efficiency and complexity than mathematical solutions. Generally, these solutions are based on biological, physical, and chemical phenomenon of nature. In this paper, the algorithms inspired by the phenomenon of physics are reviewed, surveyed, and documented. This paper mainly focuses on the following issues:(i)most inspirational facts and phenomena,(ii)their formulation into a solution,(iii)parameters considered for this formulation,(iv)effectiveness of these parameters,(v)variation with time in inspiration,(vi)other biological influences,(vii)convergence, exploration, and exploitation,(viii)Various applications. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 overviews the history of physics-inspired algorithms and also the description of few major algorithms. In Section 3 a correlative study of these major algorithms is done on the basis of their inspirational theory and formulation method. Various parameters used in these algorithms along with their variants and respective
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jopti/2013/438152/