A Mutation-Selection Algorithm for the Problem of Minimum Brauer Chains

This paper aims to face the problem of getting Brauer Chains (BC) of minimum length by using a Mutation-Selection (MS) algorithm and a representation based on the Factorial Number System (FNS). We explain our MS strategy and report the experimental results for a benchmark considered difficult to show that this approach is a viable alternative to solve this problem by getting the shortest BCs reported in the literature and in a reasonable time. Also, it was used a fine-tuning process for the MS algorithm, which was done with the help of Covering Arrays (CA) and the solutions of a Diophantine Equation (DE).