Questions tagged [fair-division]

For various problems related to dividing a resource among several parties.

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31 votes
5 answers
1k views

Fair cutting of the plane with lines

An infinite countable family $\cal{L}$ of straight lines in the plane $\mathbb{R}^2$ forms a fair cutting of the plane if the following conditions are satisfied: $\bullet$ No circle intersects ...
Wlodek Kuperberg's user avatar
50 votes
7 answers
3k views

Dividing a cake between $n-1$, $n$, or $n+1$ guests

A housewife is waiting for guests and has prepared a cake. She doesn't know how many guests will come, but it will be $n-1$, $n$, or $n+1$. What is the minimal number $f(n)$ of pieces the cake ...
Lviv Scottish Book's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the fairest order for stage-striking (and is it the Thue-Morse sequence)?

Here's a fair-sequencing problem that doesn't quite match the usual fair-division problems. I think that, like those, the answer should also be the Thue-Morse sequence ("balanced alternation"), ...
Harry Altman's user avatar
  • 2,535
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

rank-choice shared-resource fair-division

I'm looking for an algorithm or a paper that solves a problem with a particular set of properties. Imagine you have some number of rooms and some greater number of people. Each person should be ...
horriblyUnpythonic's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
252 views

Is there a moving knife procedure for envy-free cake cutting with connected pieces?

In the wikipedia page on envy-free cake cutting, continuous "moving knife" algorithms for envy free cake cutting to connected pieces is only mentioned for up to 4 players. As the wikipedia article ...
edo arad's user avatar
  • 274
4 votes
2 answers
347 views

How many cuts are required for a weighted-proportional cake-cutting?

In proportional cake-cutting, there are $n$ agents with equal entitlements to a "cake" (an interval). Each agent $i$ has a nonatomic value measure $V_i$ over the cake, and it is required to create a ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
168 views

Cutting a piece of cake that $n$ people value as exactly $w$

Stromquist and Woodall (1985) study the problem of Sets on which several measures agree. There are $n$ non-atomic value measures on the unit circle, and a parameter $w\in(0,1)$. The goal is to find a ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
803 views

Fair cake-cutting between groups

The cake-cutting game is usually played between individuals. What if we try to play it between groups? A certain land has to be divided between two states. ‎There are $n$ citizens in each state. ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
946 views

Stromquist's 3 knives procedure

(copied from math.SE) BACKGROUND: A cake has to be divided among 3 people with possibly different tastes, such that each person receives a single connected piece, and no person prefers another person'...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
9k views

Seeking a solution algorithm to the 3-partition problem

I need to divide 48 pieces of jewelry between 3 inheritors so as to give equal, or nearly equal value, to each. I have learned that this is called the 3-partition problem. I solved it for 9 pieces of ...
Grabs At Strawberries's user avatar
21 votes
4 answers
2k views

Fairest way to choose gifts

Suppose that a parent brings home from a trip $2n$ gifts of roughly equal value for his/her two children. The children get to choose one at a time which gifts they want. What is the fairest way to ...
Richard Stanley's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
295 views

Mediated envy-free and efficient cake cutting with n=2?

Is there an algorithm in literature to compute an efficient (pareto optimal) and envy-free cake cutting when there are only $n=2$ players and a mediator?
unluckyjoe's user avatar