Harmony Search Algorithms for binary optimization problems

In many theoretical and empirical investigations heuristic methods are the subject of investigation for optimization problems in order to get good and valid solutions. In 2001 Harmony Search, a new music-inspired meta-heuristic, was introduced [1]. It has been applied to various types of optimization problems, for example structural design problems, showing significant improvements over other heuristics. Motivated by the question whether these heuristics represent a new class of meta-heuristics or whether they are only another representation of a well-known technique, a couple of investigations were made. In this paper we will show that for the class of binary optimization problems this new nature-inspired heuristic is ”equivalent” to an evolutionary algorithm.