Takeover Times and Probabilities of Non-Generational Selection Rules

Abstract

The takeover time is the expected number of iterations of some selection method until a population consists entirely of copies of the best individual under the assumption that only one best individual is contained in the initial population. This quantity is often used to assess the behavior of selection methods in evolutionary algorithms. Here, takeover times and probabilities are analytically determined for some popular non-generational selection rules. Moreover, a novel classification number that aggregates additional information about the selection method is proposed.