# Accept something with probability

I am reading the following paper https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5e86/db52119d2d691af0365cdba7bb27dc0dc303.pdf and trying to implement the tabu search algorithm they describe for image segmentation. In page 2 of the paper, in step 4 and 6 of the algorithm HTS, they say that if certain conditions are met "then $z_{ij}(t+1)$ with probability" or for example "accept $z(t+1)$ as Tabu image with probability". What exactly does this phrase of "with probability" mean? Can anyone give me some reference to read about this? Where can I find more information about this and how can I implement it in my code? Thanks!

• Those seem to be incomplete sentence fragments -- a bit like reading "She wears a yellow dress" and asking what "wears a yellow" means. Please quote the complete sentence that these statements come from. – David Richerby Apr 7 '18 at 23:34
• @DavidRicherby I agree with you in that they seem like sentence fragments, but that is how they appear in the paper. This is the reason I am so confused with this algorithm. – user110320 Apr 7 '18 at 23:36
• In that case, the statements make no sense. – David Richerby Apr 7 '18 at 23:41
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