Thispaperpresentsanewhybridgeneticalgorithmforthevertexcoverproblemsinwhichscan-repairandlocalimprovementtechniquesareusedforlocaloptimization.Withthehybridapproach,geneticalgorithmsareusedtoperformglobalexplorationinapopulation,whileneighborhoodsearchmethodsareusedtoperformlocalexploitationaroundthechromosomes.Theexperimentalresultsindicatethathybridgeneticalgorithmscanobtainsolutionsofexcellentqualitytotheprobleminstanceswithdifferentsizes.Thepuregeneticalgorithmsareoutperformedbytheneighborhoodsearchheuristicsprocedurescombinedwithgeneticalgorithms.
