Parameterized Complexity Analysis of Randomized Search Heuristics

This chapter compiles a number of results that apply the theory of parameterized algorithmics to the running-time analysis of randomized search heuristics such as evolutionary algorithms. The parameterized approach articulates the running time of algorithms solving combinatorial problems in finer detail than traditional approaches from classical complexity theory. We outline the main results and proof techniques for a collection of randomized search heuristics tasked to solve NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems such as finding a minimum vertex cover in a graph, finding a maximum leaf spanning tree in a graph, and the traveling salesperson problem.Comment: This is a preliminary version of a chapter in the book "Theory of Evolutionary Computation: Recent Developments in Discrete Optimization", edited by Benjamin Doerr and Frank Neumann, published by Springe

A Parameterized Complexity Analysis of Bi-level Optimisation with Evolutionary Algorithms

Bi-level optimisation problems have gained increasing interest in the field of combinatorial optimisation in recent years. With this paper, we start the runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms for bi-level optimisation problems. We examine two NP-hard problems, the generalised minimum spanning tree problem (GMST), and the generalised travelling salesman problem (GTSP) in the context of parameterised complexity. For the generalised minimum spanning tree problem, we analyse the two approaches presented by Hu and Raidl (2012) with respect to the number of clusters that distinguish each other by the chosen representation of possible solutions. Our results show that a (1+1) EA working with the spanning nodes representation is not a fixed-parameter evolutionary algorithm for the problem, whereas the global structure representation enables to solve the problem in fixed-parameter time. We present hard instances for each approach and show that the two approaches are highly complementary by proving that they solve each other's hard instances very efficiently. For the generalised travelling salesman problem, we analyse the problem with respect to the number of clusters in the problem instance. Our results show that a (1+1) EA working with the global structure representation is a fixed-parameter evolutionary algorithm for the problem

A Parameterised Complexity Analysis of Bi-level Optimisation with Evolutionary Algorithms

Bi-level optimisation problems have gained increasing interest in the field of combinatorial optimisation in recent years. In this paper, we analyse the runtime of some evolutionary algorithms for bi-level optimisation problems. We examine two NP-hard problems, the generalised minimum spanning tree problem and the generalised travelling salesperson problem in the context of parameterised complexity. For the generalised minimum spanning tree problem, we analyse the two approaches presented by Hu and Raidl (2012) with respect to the number of clusters that distinguish each other by the chosen representation of possible solutions. Our results show that a (1+1) evolutionary algorithm working with the spanning nodes representation is not a fixed-parameter evolutionary algorithm for the problem, whereas the problem can be solved in fixed-parameter time with the global structure representation. We present hard instances for each approach and show that the two approaches are highly complementary by proving that they solve each other’s hard instances very efficiently. For the generalised travelling salesperson problem, we analyse the problem with respect to the number of clusters in the problem instance. Our results show that a (1+1) evolutionary algorithm working with the global structure representation is a fixed-parameter evolutionary algorithm for the problem

Performance Analysis of Evolutionary Algorithms for the Minimum Label Spanning Tree Problem

Some experimental investigations have shown that evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are efficient for the minimum label spanning tree (MLST) problem. However, we know little about that in theory. As one step towards this issue, we theoretically analyze the performances of the (1+1) EA, a simple version of EAs, and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm called GSEMO on the MLST problem. We reveal that for the MLST$_{b}$ problem the (1+1) EA and GSEMO achieve a $\frac{b+1}{2}$-approximation ratio in expected polynomial times of $n$ the number of nodes and $k$ the number of labels. We also show that GSEMO achieves a $(2ln(n))$-approximation ratio for the MLST problem in expected polynomial time of $n$ and $k$. At the same time, we show that the (1+1) EA and GSEMO outperform local search algorithms on three instances of the MLST problem. We also construct an instance on which GSEMO outperforms the (1+1) EA