Figure 2

The figure illustrates (a) greedy local search, (b) naive sampling, and (c) PLOW on a simplified energy surface. (a) A sampled conformation C _{i (sampled)} (empty blue circle) is mapped to the nearest local minimum C _{i (minimum)} (solid purple circle) by a greedy local search (series of short purple arrows). (b) 5 points sampled at random (empty blue circles) by the naive sampling approach are each mapped to a nearby local minimum (solid purple circles) by a greedy local search (series of short purple arrows). (c) PLOW begins at C ₀ (leftmost empty blue circle). Through a series of perturbations (long orange arrows) and greedy local searches (short purple arrows), PLOW samples conformations representative of local minima (C ₁ through C ₄) in the energy surface.