title: Toward a unifying framework for evolutionary processes.
abstract: The theory of population genetics and evolutionary computation have been evolving separately for nearly 30 years. Many results have been independently obtained in both fields and many others are unique to its respective field. We aim to bridge this gap by developing a unifying framework for evolutionary processes that allows both evolutionary algorithms and population genetics models to be cast in the same formal framework. The framework we present here decomposes the evolutionary process into its several components in order to facilitate the identification of similarities between different models. In particular, we propose a classification of evolutionary operators based on the defining properties of the different components. We cast several commonly used operators from both fields into this common framework. Using this, we map different evolutionary and genetic algorithms to different evolutionary regimes and identify candidates with the most potential for the translation of results between the fields. This provides a unified description of evolutionary processes and represents a stepping stone towards new tools and results to both fields.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Science and Technology, Am Campus 1, A3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria. Electronic address: tiago.paixao@ist.ac.at.
authors.forename: Tiago
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paixão
authors.affiliation: University of Sheffield, UK. Electronic address: golnaz.badkobeh@googlemail.com.
authors.forename: Golnaz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Badkobeh
authors.affiliation: Institute of Science and Technology, Am Campus 1, A3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria. Electronic address: nick.barton@ist.ac.at.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.affiliation: University of Nottingham, UK. Electronic address: dogan.corus@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Doğan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Çörüş
authors.affiliation: University of Nottingham, UK. Electronic address: Duc-Cuong.Dang@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Duc-Cuong
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.affiliation: Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany. Electronic address: friedrich@hpi.de.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Friedrich
authors.affiliation: University of Nottingham, UK. Electronic address: PerKristian.Lehre@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Per Kristian
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Lehre
authors.affiliation: University of Sheffield, UK. Electronic address: d.sudholt@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sudholt
authors.affiliation: Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany. Electronic address: andrew.sutton@hpi.de.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.affiliation: Institute of Science and Technology, Am Campus 1, A3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria. Electronic address: barbora.trubenova@ist.ac.at.
authors.forename: Barbora
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Trubenová
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005828:Genetics, Population; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011157:Population Dynamics
keywords: Evolution; Evolutionary computation; Mathematical modelling; Population genetics