Gravity inversion of a fault by Particle swarm optimization (PSO)

Particle swarm optimization is a heuristic global optimization method and also an optimization algorithm, which is based on swarm intelligence. It comes from the research on the bird and fish flock movement behavior. In this paper we introduce and use this method in gravity inverse problem. We discuss the solution for the inverse problem of determining the shape of a fault whose gravity anomaly is known. Application of the proposed algorithm to this problem has proven its capability to deal with difficult optimization problems. The technique proved to work efficiently when tested to a number of models. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-315) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.