A Parameterized Runtime Analysis of Simple Evolutionary Algorithms for Makespan Scheduling

Andrew M. Sutton, Frank Neumann

Abstract: We consider simple multi-start evolutionary algorithms applied to the classical NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem of Makespan Scheduling on two machines. We study the dependence of the runtime of this type of algorithm on three different key hardness parameters. By doing this, we provide further structural insights into the behavior of evolutionary algorithms for this classical problem.