On Connected Strongly-Proportional Cake-Cutting
Abstract: We investigate the problem of fairly dividing a divisible heterogeneous resource, also known as a cake, among a set of agents who may have different entitlements. We characterize the existence of a connected strongly-proportional allocation -- one in which every agent receives a contiguous piece worth strictly more than their proportional share. The characterization is supplemented with an algorithm that determines its existence using O(n * 2n) queries. We devise a simpler characterization for agents with strictly positive valuations and with equal entitlements, and present an algorithm to determine the existence of such an allocation using O(n2) queries. We provide matching lower bounds in the number of queries for both algorithms. When a connected strongly-proportional allocation exists, we show that it can also be computed using a similar number of queries. We also consider the problem of deciding the existence of a connected allocation of a cake in which each agent receives a piece worth a small fixed value more than their proportional share, and the problem of deciding the existence of a connected strongly-proportional allocation of a pie.
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