Elitist recombination: an integrated selection recombination GA

In standard genetic algorithms selection and recombination are separated into two distinct phases. Here we discuss an extremely simple GA implementation where selection and recombination are intertwined. Competition for survival takes place at the level of each family-the mating parents and their offspring-which results in a local elitist selection operator. We derive an analytical model for optimizing the bit counting function, and compare the elitist recombination GA with tournament selection and standard recombination. Results suggest that elitist recombination is less sensitive to undersized populations, while there is no need to choose a specific value for the crossover probability