  This paper provides the simulated floating zone (SFZ) method that is an
efficient simulation technique to obtain thermal equilibrium states, especially
useful when domain formation prevents the system from reaching a
spatially-uniform stable state. In the SFZ method, the system is heated up
locally, and the heated region is steadily shifted, similar to the floating
zone method for growing a single crystal with less lattice defect and impurity
in experiments. We demonstrate that the SFZ method suppresses domain formation
and accelerates the optimization of the state, taking an example of a magnetic
vortex crystal state realized in itinerant magnets. We show that the efficiency
is maximized when the local heating temperature is tuned to be comparable to
the characteristic energy scale of the ordered state.
