Tuning and jamming reduced to their minima.

Inspired by protein folding, we smooth out the complex cost function landscapes of two processes: the tuning of networks and the jamming of ideal spheres. In both processes, geometrical frustration plays a role-tuning pressure differences between pairs of target nodes far from the source in a flow network impedes tuning of nearby pairs more than the reverse process, while unjamming the system in one region can make it more difficult to unjam elsewhere. By modifying the cost functions to control the order in which functions are tuned or regions unjam, we smooth out local minima while leaving global minima unaffected, increasing the success rate for reaching global minima.