On the Interaction of Adaptive Population Control with Cumulative Step-Size Adaptation

Abstract: Three state-of-the-art adaptive population control strategies (PCS) are theoretically and empirically investigated for a multi-recombinative, cumulative step-size adaptation Evolution Strategy $(\mu/\mu_I, \lambda)$-CSA-ES. First, scaling properties for the generation number and mutation strength rescaling are derived on the sphere in the limit of large population sizes. Then, the adaptation properties of three standard CSA-variants are studied as a function of the population size and dimensionality, and compared to the predicted scaling results. Thereafter, three PCS are implemented along the CSA-ES and studied on a test bed of sphere, random, and Rastrigin functions. The CSA-adaptation properties significantly influence the performance of the PCS, which is shown in more detail. Given the test bed, well-performing parameter sets (in terms of scaling, efficiency, and success rate) for both the CSA- and PCS-subroutines are identified.