Measuring the Spatial Dispersion of Evolutionary Search Processes: Application to Walksat

In this paper, we propose a simple and efficient method for measuring the spatial dispersion of a set of points in a metric space. This method allows the quantifying of the population diversity in genetic algorithms. It can also be used to measure the spatial dispersion of any local search process during a specified time interval. We then use this method to study the way Walksat explores its search space, showing that the search for a solution often includes several stages of intensification and diversification.