Mutation is a
genetic operator used to maintain
genetic diversity from one generation of a population of
genetic algorithm chromosomes to the next. It is analogous to biological
mutation. Mutation alters one or more gene values in a chromosome from its initial state. In mutation, the solution may change entirely from the previous solution. Hence GA can come to better solution by using mutation. Mutation occurs during evolution according to a user-definable mutation probability. This probability should be set low. If it is set too high, the search will turn into a primitive random search.