A Natural and Simple Function Which is Hard For All Evolutionary Algorithms

Abstract

Evolutionary algorit ms (EAs)are randomized search strategies which have turned out to be efficient for optimization problems of quite different kind. In order to understand the behavior of EAs, one also is interested in examples where EAs need exponential time to find an optimal solution. Until now only artificial examples of this kind were known. Here an example with a clear and simple structure is presented. It can be described by a short formula, it is a polynomial of degree 3, and it is an instance of a wellknown problem, the theoretically and practically important MAXSAT problem.