Matheuristics: Hybridizing Mathematical Programming and Metaheuristics

Matheuristics is a class of hybrid optimization methods that tightly couple exact mathematical programming components—such as mixed-integer programming (MIP) solvers—with metaheuristic search procedures. Formally introduced and named by Maniezzo, Stützle, and Voß in 2009, the framework leverages the global-search capability of metaheuristics and the structural exploitation of mathematical programming to tackle large-scale combinatorial optimization problems that neither approach can solve effectively alone.