Cooling Schedule

A cooling schedule is a technique used in optimization algorithms, particularly simulated annealing, to help find the best solution among many possibilities. Imagine gradually lowering the temperature in a process to allow a system to settle into a low-energy, optimal state. In algorithms, the "temperature" controls how much randomness or exploration occurs; starting high encourages trying different options, and gradually lowering encourages fine-tuning around promising solutions. This approach helps avoid getting stuck in suboptimal solutions and guides the process toward the most optimal outcome over time.