Several ways of using singular value decomposition (SVD), a linear algebra technique typically used for information retrieval, to decompose problems into subproblems are investigated in the genetic algorithm setting. Empirical evidence, concerning document comparison, indicates that using SVD results both in a savings in storage space and an improvement in information retrieval. Combining theoretical results and algorithms discovered by others, several problems are identified that the SVD can be used with to determine a substructure. Subproblems are discovered by projecting vectors representing the genes of highly fit individuals into a new low-dimensional space, obtained by truncating the SVD of a strategically chosen gene x individual matrix. Techniques are proposed and evaluated that use the subproblems identified by SVD to influence the evolution of the genetic algorithm. By restricting the locus of optimization to the substructure of highly fit individuals, the performance of the genetic algorithm was improved. Performance was also improved by using SVD to genetically engineer individuals out of the subproblems.
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