Title
Exploiting Erraticism in Search
Abstract
High sensitivity to initial conditions is generally viewed as a drawback of tree search methods because it leads to erratic behavior to be mitigated somehow. In this paper we investigate the opposite viewpoint and consider this behavior as an opportunity to exploit. Our working hypothesis is that erraticism is in fact just a consequence of the exponential nature of tree search that acts as a chaotic amplifier, so it is largely unavoidable. We propose a bet-and-run approach to actually turn erraticism to one's advantage. The idea is to make a number of short sample runs with randomized initial conditions, to bet on the “most promising” run selected according to certain simple criteria, and to bring it to completion. Computational results on a large testbed of mixed integer linear programs from the literature are presented, showing the potential of this approach even when embedded in a proof-of-concept implementation.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1287/opre.2013.1231
Operations Research
Keywords
Field
DocType
mixed integer programming
Drawback,Integer,Mathematical optimization,Exponential function,Working hypothesis,Testbed,Exploit,Integer programming,Chaotic,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
62
1
0030-364X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
10
0.67
16
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Matteo Fischetti12505260.53
Michele Monaci2104960.78