On Monte Carlo Tree Search for Weighted Vertex Coloring

TL;DR

This paper explores the application of Monte Carlo Tree Search combined with heuristics to solve the Weighted Vertex Coloring Problem, evaluating various strategies on benchmark instances.

Contribution

It introduces the first integration of MCTS with heuristics for weighted vertex coloring and analyzes different simulation strategies' effectiveness.

Findings

MCTS with heuristics improves solution quality.

Different simulation strategies have varying effectiveness.

Empirical analysis highlights the strengths and limitations of each approach.

Abstract

This work presents the first study of using the popular Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) method combined with dedicated heuristics for solving the Weighted Vertex Coloring Problem. Starting with the basic MCTS algorithm, we gradually introduce a number of algorithmic variants where MCTS is extended by various simulation strategies including greedy and local search heuristics. We conduct experiments on well-known benchmark instances to assess the value of each studied combination. We also provide empirical evidence to shed light on the advantages and limits of each strategy.