from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
simulated annealing
annealing
A technique which can be applied to any minimisation or
learning process based on successive update steps (either
random or {deterministic}) where the update step length is
proportional to an arbitrarily set parameter which can play
the role of a temperature. Then, in analogy with the
annealing of metals, the temperature is made high in the early
stages of the process for faster minimisation or learning,
then is reduced for greater stability.