A fast genetic algorithm for solving the maximum clique problem

Aiming at the defects of Genetic Algorithm (GA) for solving the Maximum Clique Problem (MCP) in more complicated, long-running and poor generality, a fast genetic algorithm (FGA) is proposed in this paper. A new chromosome repair method on the degree, elitist selection based on random repairing, uniform crossover and inversion mutation are adopted in the new algorithm. These components can speed up the search and effectively prevent the algorithm from trapping into the local optimum. The algorithm was tested on DIMACS benchmark graphs. Experimental results show that FGA has better performance and high generality.