On the Optimization of Monotone Polynomials by Simple Randomized Search Heuristics

Abstract

Randomized search heuristics like evolutionary algorithms and simulated annealing find many applications, especially in situations where no full information on the problem instance is available. In order to understand how these heuristics work, it is necessary to analyze their behavior on classes of functions. Such an analysis is performed here for the class of monotone pseudo-boolean polynomials. Results depending on the degree and the number of terms of the polynomial are obtained. The class of monotone polynomials is of special interest since simple functions of this kind can have an image set of exponential size, improvements can increase the Hamming distance to the optimum and in order to find a better search point, it can be necessary to search within a large plateau of search points with the same fitness value.