Evolution window

It was observed in evolution strategies that significant progress toward the fitness/objective function's optimum, generally, only can happen in a narrow band of the mutation step size σ. That narrow band is called evolution window.

There are three well-known methods to adapt the mutation step size σ in evolution strategies:

* (1/5-th) success rule
* self-adaptation
* cumulative step size adaptation

On simple functions all of them have been empirically shown to keep the step size within the evolution window.

ee also

* Bionics
* Cybernetics
* Evolutionary Algorithm
* Evolution strategy
* Optimization (mathematics)

References

* H.-G. Beyer. Toward a Theory of Evolution Strategies: Self-Adaptation. "Evolutionary Computation, 3"(3), 311-347.
* Ingo Rechenberg: "Evolutionsstrategie '94". Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog 1994.