Linkage-Based Distance Metric in the Search Space of Genetic Algorithms

Abstract

We propose a new distance metric, based on the linkage of genes, in the search space of genetic algorithms. This second-order distance measure is derived from the gene interaction graph and first-order distance, which is a natural distance in chromosomal spaces. We show that the proposed measure forms a metric space and can be computed efficiently. As an example application, we demonstrate how this measure can be used to estimate the extent to which gene rearrangement improves the performance of genetic algorithms.