Tight Runtime Bounds for Static Unary Unbiased Evolutionary Algorithms on Linear Functions

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Hauptverfasser: Doerr, Carola, Janett, Duri Andrea, Lengler, Johannes
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Doerr, Carola
Janett, Duri Andrea
Lengler, Johannes
author_facet Doerr, Carola
Janett, Duri Andrea
Lengler, Johannes
contents In a seminal paper in 2013, Witt showed that the (1+1) Evolutionary Algorithm with standard bit mutation needs time $(1+o(1))n \ln n/p_1$ to find the optimum of any linear function, as long as the probability $p_1$ to flip exactly one bit is $Θ(1)$. In this paper we investigate how this result generalizes if standard bit mutation is replaced by an arbitrary unbiased mutation operator. This situation is notably different, since the stochastic domination argument used for the lower bound by Witt no longer holds. In particular, starting closer to the optimum is not necessarily an advantage, and OneMax is no longer the easiest function for arbitrary starting positions. Nevertheless, we show that Witt's result carries over if $p_1$ is not too small, with different constraints for upper and lower bounds, and if the number of flipped bits has bounded expectation~$χ$. Notably, this includes some of the heavy-tail mutation operators used in fast genetic algorithms, but not all of them. We also give examples showing that algorithms with unbounded $χ$ have qualitatively different trajectories close to the optimum.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_12338
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tight Runtime Bounds for Static Unary Unbiased Evolutionary Algorithms on Linear Functions
Doerr, Carola
Janett, Duri Andrea
Lengler, Johannes
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
In a seminal paper in 2013, Witt showed that the (1+1) Evolutionary Algorithm with standard bit mutation needs time $(1+o(1))n \ln n/p_1$ to find the optimum of any linear function, as long as the probability $p_1$ to flip exactly one bit is $Θ(1)$. In this paper we investigate how this result generalizes if standard bit mutation is replaced by an arbitrary unbiased mutation operator. This situation is notably different, since the stochastic domination argument used for the lower bound by Witt no longer holds. In particular, starting closer to the optimum is not necessarily an advantage, and OneMax is no longer the easiest function for arbitrary starting positions. Nevertheless, we show that Witt's result carries over if $p_1$ is not too small, with different constraints for upper and lower bounds, and if the number of flipped bits has bounded expectation~$χ$. Notably, this includes some of the heavy-tail mutation operators used in fast genetic algorithms, but not all of them. We also give examples showing that algorithms with unbounded $χ$ have qualitatively different trajectories close to the optimum.
title Tight Runtime Bounds for Static Unary Unbiased Evolutionary Algorithms on Linear Functions
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.12338