20.500.12556/DKUM-100105 On the exploration and exploitation capabilities of adaptive differential evolution a case study using JADE, L-SHADE, and jDElscop Differential Evolution (DE) is one of the most successful population-based optimization algorithms, and numerous adaptive variants, such as JADE, L-SHADE, and jDElscop, have been proposed to improve its search performance. Although these methods consistently outperform classical DE variants, whether they genuinely improve the balance between exploration and exploitation remains largely unexamined, since prior evaluations relied on imprecise diversity-based measures. This paper presents a detailed study of DE variants using the recently proposed attraction basin-based measures that distinguish between different types of exploration (successful, failed, deceptive, and successful rejection) and exploitation (successful and unsuccessful). The exploration and exploitation behavior of JADE, L-SHADE, and jDElscop is compared with four classical DE strategies: DE/best/1/bin, DE/best/1/exp, DE/rand/1/bin, and DE/rand/1/exp. The results show that adaptive DE variants prolong the exploration phase and improve the balance between successful and unsuccessful exploitation compared with the classical strategies, though each achieves this through a distinct mechanism. The presented findings improve the understanding of adaptive DE search behavior and demonstrate the usefulness of attraction basin-based measures for analyzing evolutionary optimization algorithms. exploration and exploitation attraction basin attraction basin metaheuristics adaptive differential evolution raziskovanje in izkoriščanje metaheuristika diferencialna evolucija true false true MDPI Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik https://www.mdpi.com/journal/mathematics © 2026 by the authors Članek v reviji 2026-09-04 09:05:23 2026-09-04 09:05:23 2026-09-05 03:09:30 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 47 str. no. 17, [article no.] 3119 Vol. 14 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2026-07-30 2026-08-24 2026-08-31 004.8 289797123 2227-7390 mathematics-14-03119.pdf mathematics-14-03119.pdf 1 1D818834D0495B92EFE76C892665250B a7ef6199d74218fabb135ff5a362d6c56592f9cf5921d2ed0fa104fc35266791 89fba309-a82f-11f1-b9ca-00155d0001be https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=211517 Fakulteta za elektrotehniko, računalništvo in informatiko 0 0 0