Optimization of a solution involves evaluating the neighbours of a state of the problem, which are new states produced through conservatively altering a given state. For example, in the [[travelling salesman problem]] each state is typically defined as a [[permutation]] of the cities to be visited, and its neighbours are the set of permutations produced by reversing the order of any two successive cities. The well-defined way in which the states are altered to produce neighbouring states is called a "move", and different moves give different sets of neighbouring states. These moves usually result in minimal alterations of the last state, in an attempt to progressively improve the solution through iteratively improving its parts (such as the city connections in the traveling salesman problem). | Optimization of a solution involves evaluating the neighbours of a state of the problem, which are new states produced through conservatively altering a given state. For example, in the [[travelling salesman problem]] each state is typically defined as a [[permutation]] of the cities to be visited, and its neighbours are the set of permutations produced by reversing the order of any two successive cities. The well-defined way in which the states are altered to produce neighbouring states is called a "move", and different moves give different sets of neighbouring states. These moves usually result in minimal alterations of the last state, in an attempt to progressively improve the solution through iteratively improving its parts (such as the city connections in the traveling salesman problem). |