Waste makes haste: Bounded time protocols for envy-free cake cutting with free disposal

Erel Segal-Halevi, Avinatan Hassidim, Yonatan Aumann

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider the classic problem of envy-free division of a heterogeneous good (aka the cake) among multiple agents. It is well known that if each agent must receive a contiguous piece then there is no finite protocol for the problem, whenever there are 3 or more agents. This impossibility result, however, assumes that the entire cake must be allocated. In this paper we study the problem in a setting where the protocol may leave some of the cake un-allocated, as long as each agent obtains at least some positive value (according to its valuation). We prove that this version of the problem is solvable in a bounded time. For the case of 3 agents we provide a finite and bounded-time protocol that guarantees each agent a share with value at least 1/3, which is the most that can be guaranteed.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAAMAS 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
EditorsEdith Elkind, Gerhard Weiss, Pinar Yolum, Rafael H. Bordini
Pages901-908
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781450337700
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2015 - Istanbul, Turkey
Duration: 4 May 20158 May 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS
Volume2
ISSN (Print)1548-8403
ISSN (Electronic)1558-2914

Conference

Conference14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2015
Country/TerritoryTurkey
CityIstanbul
Period4/05/158/05/15

Keywords

  • Cake-cutting
  • Envy-free
  • Fair division
  • Finite algorithm

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