Likelihood search method with variable division search

Various methods and techniques have been proposed for solving optimization problems; the methods have been applied to various practical problems. However the methods have demerits. The demerits which should be covered are, for example, falling into local minima, or, a slow convergence speed to optimal points. In this paper, Likelihood Search Method (L.S.M.) is proposed for searching for a global optimum systematically and effectively in a single framework, which is not a combination of different methods. The L.S.M. is a sort of a random search method (R.S.M.) and thus can get out of local minima. However exploitation of gradient information makes the L.S.M. superior in convergence speed to the commonly used R.S.M..