English

An $\Omega(n \log n)$ Randomized Lower Bound for Cutting a Cake into Proportionally Fair Pieces

Data Structures and Algorithms 2026-05-22 v1 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

We consider the classic cake cutting problem in the Robertson-Webb model, with the objective of proportional fairness. We show that any randomized algorithm must use Ω(nlogn)\Omega(n \log n) queries.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.21829,
  title  = {An $\Omega(n \log n)$ Randomized Lower Bound for Cutting a Cake into Proportionally Fair Pieces},
  author = {Stephen Arndt and Kirk Pruhs and Trung Tran},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.21829},
  year   = {2026}
}