The tuning process of a large apparatus of many components could be represented and quantified by constructing parameter-tuning networks. The experimental tuning of the ion source of the neutral beam injector of HT-7 Tokamak is presented as an example. Stretched-exponential cumulative degree distributions are found in the parameter-tuning networks. An active walk model with eight walkers is constructed. Each active walker is a particle moving with friction in an energy landscape; the landscape is modified by the collective action of all the walkers. Numerical simulations show that the parameter-tuning networks generated by the model also give stretched exponential functions, in good agreement with experiments. Our methods provide a new way and a new insight to understand the action of humans in the parameter-tuning of experimental processes, is helpful for experimental research and other optimization problems.
@article{arxiv.0801.2802,
title = {Parameter-tuning Networks: Experiments and Active Walk Model},
author = {Xiao-Pu Han and Chun-Dong Hu and Zhi-Min Liu and Bing-Hong Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0801.2802},
year = {2008}
}