Critical control of a genetic algorithm

Based on speculations coming from statistical mechanics and the conjectured existence of critical states, I propose a simple heuristic in order to control the mutation probability and the population size of a genetic algorithm. Genetic algorithms are widely used nowadays, as well as their cousins evolutionary algorithms. The most cited initial references on genetic algorithms are the beautiful books of Holland [10], who tried to initiate a theoretical analysis of these processes, and of Goldberg [9], who made a very attractive exposition of these algorithms. The literature on genetic algorithms is now so huge that it is beyond my ability to compile a decent reasonable review. For years, there has been an urgent and growing demand for guidelines to operate a genetic algorithm on a practical problem. On the theoretical side, progress is quite slow and somehow disappointing for practitioners. The theoretical works often deal with a simple toy problem, otherwise the behavior of the geneti...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Raphaël Cerf
• Keywords: Conjectured Existence, CORR 2010, Education, Genetic Algorithm, Statistical Mechanics