Gene pool recombination and utilization of covariances for the Breeder Genetic Algorithm

New recombination operators based on fuzzy and gene pool recombination are introduced for continuous genes. The performance of the operators is analyzed by means of the equation describing the response to selection. The operators are evaluated according to a new design criterion: maximizing the product of heritability and standard deviation. By means of a transformation to Eigenspace unimodal functions having arbitrary shaped level sets can be optimized. A prediction model based on the response to selection equation is derived which shows good agreement with the experimental results.