부산대학교 도서관

We investigate the problem of fairly dividing a divisible heterogeneous resource, also known as a cake, among a set of agents. We characterize the existence of an allocation in which every agent receives a contiguous piece worth strictly more than their proportional share, also known as a *strongly-proportional allocation*. The characterization is supplemented with an algorithm that determines the existence of a connected strongly-proportional allocation using at most $n \cdot 2^{n-1}$ queries. We provide a simpler characterization for agents with strictly positive valuations, and show that the number of queries required to determine the existence of a connected strongly-proportional allocation is in $\Theta(n^2)$. Our proofs are constructive and yield a connected strongly-proportional allocation, when it exists, using a similar number of queries.
Comment: We have a polynomial-time characterization for hungry agents, and an exponential-time characterization for general agents. Can you find a polynomial-time characterization for general agents?