Related papers: Lower Bounds for Non-Elitist Evolutionary Algorith…
We say a turnstile streaming algorithm is "non-adaptive" if, during updates, the memory cells written and read depend only on the index being updated and random coins tossed at the beginning of the stream (and not on the memory contents of…
We develop a novel framework to study smooth and strongly convex optimization algorithms, both deterministic and stochastic. Focusing on quadratic functions we are able to examine optimization algorithms as a recursive application of linear…
For genetic algorithms using a bit-string representation of length~$n$, the general recommendation is to take $1/n$ as mutation rate. In this work, we discuss whether this is really justified for multimodal functions. Taking jump functions…
Finding cliques in random graphs and the closely related "planted" clique variant, where a clique of size t is planted in a random G(n,1/2) graph, have been the focus of substantial study in algorithm design. Despite much effort, the best…
The dynamics of adaptation is difficult to predict because it is highly stochastic even in large populations. The uncertainty emerges from number fluctuations, called genetic drift, arising in the small number of particularly fit…
In spite of the recent quick growth of the Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) research field, there has been few trials to adapt the general variation operators to the particular context of the quest for the Pareto-optimal set.…
We study in detail a recently proposed simple discrete model for evolution on smooth landscapes. An asymptotic solution of this model for long times is constructed. We find that the dynamics of the population are governed by correlation…
To date, the only way to argue polynomial lower bounds for dynamic algorithms is via fine-grained complexity arguments. These arguments rely on strong assumptions about specific problems such as the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH)…
The multi-population replicator dynamics (RD) can be considered a dynamic approach to the study of multi-player games, where it was shown to be related to Cross' learning, as well as of systems of coevolving populations. However, not all of…
Test-time scaling has emerged as a promising direction for enhancing the reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models in last few years. In this work, we propose Population-Evolve, a training-free method inspired by Genetic Algorithms to…
We present preconditioned stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithms for the $\ell_1$ minimization problem $\min_{x}\|A x - b\|_1$ in the overdetermined case, where there are far more constraints than variables. Specifically, we have $A…
Although mutations drive the evolutionary process, the rates at which the mutations occur are themselves subject to evolutionary forces. Our purpose here is to understand the role of selection and random genetic drift in the evolution of…
Evolutionary algorithms, inspired by natural evolution, aim to optimize difficult objective functions without computing derivatives. Here we detail the relationship between population genetics and evolutionary optimization and formulate a…
Large-scale subset selection asks for a small useful set of examples, features, sensors, seed users, or context passages from an enormous ground set. Submodular maximization is a canonical model for such diminishing-returns problems, but…
In this work, we propose a (linearized) Alternating Direction Method-of-Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm for minimizing a convex function subject to a nonconvex constraint. We focus on the special case where such constraint arises from the…
We introduce a novel approach for discriminative classification using evolutionary algorithms. We first propose an algorithm to optimize the total loss value using a modified 0-1 loss function in a one-dimensional space for classification.…
We investigate the evolutionary rescue of a microbial population in a gradually deteriorating environment, through a combination of analytical calculations and stochastic simulations. We consider a population destined for extinction in the…
The existence of a pivot rule for the simplex method that guarantees a strongly polynomial run-time is a longstanding, fundamental open problem in the theory of linear programming. The leading pivot rule in theory is the shadow pivot rule,…
Recent advances in distributed optimization and learning have shown that communication compression is one of the most effective means of reducing communication. While there have been many results on convergence rates under communication…
In this paper, we present several new results on minimizing a nonsmooth and nonconvex function under a Lipschitz condition. Recent work shows that while the classical notion of Clarke stationarity is computationally intractable up to some…