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Simulated Annealing for Cipher Breaking

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Optimization strategy used by Louis's substitution-cipher solver. Start from a frequency-seeded key, repeatedly swap two letter mappings, and keep the swap if the quadgram score improves. To escape local maxima, periodically accept a worse swap — but decrease the 'temperature' (probability of accepting regressions) over time so the search explores early and exploits late. Each Ractor used an increasingly aggressive cooling strategy: the first Ractors explored freely, the last Ractors stuck rigidly to strict improvement.

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about
Simulated Annealing for Cipher Breaking concept
The solver uses a simulated-annealing-style 'chill' over letter-swap search.
about
Simulated Annealing for Cipher Breaking concept
Each Ractor uses a different cooling schedule.

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