English

Characterization and equilibrium of bichromatic max-sum matchings

Combinatorics 2026-07-11 v1 Computational Geometry

Abstract

We study maximum-sum red-blue matchings and matching equilibrium for finite planar point sets. For a red-blue perfect matching M={(ai,bi):1in}M = \{(a_i,b_i) : 1 \le i \le n\}, we define the gain of a directed red cycle as the change in total weight produced by cyclically shifting the corresponding blue partners. We prove that MM is maximum-sum if and only if every directed red cycle has nonpositive gain, and we derive a geometric sufficient condition for optimality from cyclic intersections of distance-difference regions. We then characterize balanced matchings, in which all red-blue perfect matchings have the same total weight. Equilibrium is shown to be equivalent to vanishing cycle gains, to an additive form of the distance matrix, and to a common level-set condition for distance-difference functions. In the squared Euclidean case this yields an orthogonality classification, while in the Euclidean case it yields a hyperbolic level-set description and a collinear-separation classification in the nondegenerate setting.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.10070,
  title  = {Characterization and equilibrium of bichromatic max-sum matchings},
  author = {Oscar Chacón-Rivera},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.10070},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 6 figures