Initialization is Robust in Evolutionary Algorithms that Encode Spanning Trees as Sets of Edges

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) that search spaces of spanning trees can encode candidate trees as sets of edges. In this case, edge-sets for an EA's initial population should represent spanning trees chosen with uniform probabilities on the graph that underlies the target problem instance. The generation of random spanning trees is not as simple as it might appear. Mechanisms based on Prim's and Kruskal's minimum spanning tree algorithms are not uniform, and uniform mechanisms are slow, not guaranteed to terminate, or require that the underlying graph be complete