Simultaneous Cake Cutting
Balkanski, Eric (Carnegie Mellon University) | Brânzei, Simina (Aarhus University) | Kurokawa, David (Carnegie Mellon University) | Procaccia, Ariel D. (Carnegie Mellon University)
We introduce the simultaneous model for cake cutting (the fair allocation of a divisible good), in which agents simultaneously send messages containing a sketch of their preferences over the cake. We show that this model enables the computation of divisions that satisfy proportionality -- a popular fairness notion -- using a protocol that circumvents a standard lower bound via parallel information elicitation. Cake divisions satisfying another prominent fairness notion, envy-freeness, are impossible to compute in the simultaneous model, but admit arbitrarily good approximations.
Jul-14-2014