Genetic algorithm behavior in the MAXSAT domain

Abstract

Random Boolean Satisfiability function generators have recently been proposed as tools for studying genetic algorithm behavior. Yet MAXSAT problems exhibit extremely limited epistasis. Furthermore, all nonzero Walsh coefficients can be computed exactly for MAXSAT problems in polynomial time using only the clause information. This means the low order schema averages can be computed quickly and exactly for very large MAXSAT problems. But unless P=NP, this low order information cannot reliably lead to the global optimum, thus nontrivial MAXSAT problems must be deceptive.