Genetic algorithms and scatter search: unsuspected potentials

We provide a tutorial survey of connections between genetic algorithms and scatter search that have useful implications for developing new methods for optimization problems. The links between these approaches are rooted in principles underlying mathematical relaxations, which became inherited and extended by scatter search. Hybrid methods incorporating elements of genetic algorithms and scatter search are beginning to be explored in the literature, and we demonstrate that the opportunity exists to develop more advanced procedures that make fuller use of scatter search strategies and their recent extensions.