Determination of bound-state wave functions by a genetic algorithm

We present a stochastic method of minimizing the ground state energy in variational calculations of light nuclei using the refined resonating group model. The method utilizes a bit representation of the width parameters to be varied. To find the best possible set of width parameters we use strategies familiar from biological evolution. Very complicated problems can be solved in this way because the method is intrinsically parallel. The algorithm can be used on parallel computers with any number of processors without any change. As an example we give the results of a simple model calculation of Li-7.