  The effectiveness of stochastic algorithms based on Monte Carlo dynamics in
solving hard optimization problems is mostly unknown. Beyond the basic
statement that at a dynamical phase transition the ergodicity breaks and a
Monte Carlo dynamics cannot sample correctly the probability distribution in
times linear in the system size, there are almost no predictions nor intuitions
on the behavior of this class of stochastic dynamics. The situation is
particularly intricate because, when using a Monte Carlo based algorithm as an
optimization algorithm, one is usually interested in the out of equilibrium
behavior which is very hard to analyse. Here we focus on the use of Parallel
Tempering in the search for the largest independent set in a sparse random
graph, showing that it can find solutions well beyond the dynamical threshold.
Comparison with state-of-the-art message passing algorithms reveals that
parallel tempering is definitely the algorithm performing best, although a
theory explaining its behavior is still lacking.
