Basin hopping is a general approach to the global optimisation of high-dimensional continuous and differentiable functions. It falls into the category of methods in which the function to be optimised is transformed to make searching easier without affecting the solution. In basin hopping, the transformation maps the function onto a series of plateaus where the barriers between local minima have been removed [1]. In this talk I will review the early applications of basin hopping to the global optimisation of the potential energy of rare-gas clusters, illustrating the underlying reasons for its success [2]. I will also describe more recent work on clusters of model dipolar systems, which have revealed exotic ground state structures such as knots, links and coils [3].

[1] D. J. Wales and J. P. K. Doye; J. Phys. Chem. A 101 5111 (1997)
[2] J. P. K. Doye, D. J. Wales and M. A. Miller; J. Chem. Phys. 109 8143 (1998)
[3] M. A. Miller and D. J. Wales; J. Phys. Chem. B 109 23109 (2005)

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