English

On Robust Popular Matchings with Tie-Bounded Preferences and Stable Matchings with Two-Sided Ties

Computer Science and Game Theory 2025-10-30 v1 Multiagent Systems

Abstract

We are given a bipartite graph G=(AB,E)G = \left( A \cup B, E \right). In the one-sided model, every aAa \in A (often called agents) ranks its neighbours zNaz \in N_{a} strictly, and no bBb \in B has any preference order over its neighbours yNby \in N_{b}, and vertices in BB abstain from casting their votes to matchings. In the two-sided model with one-sided ties, every aAa \in A ranks its neighbours zNaz \in N_{a} strictly, and every bBb \in B puts all of its neighbours into a single large tie, i.e., bBb \in B prefers every yNby \in N_{b} equally. In this two-sided model with one-sided ties, when two matchings compete in a majority election, bBb \in B abstains from casting its vote for a matching when both the matchings saturate bb or both leave bb unsaturated; else bb prefers the matching where it is saturated. A popular matching MM is \emph{robust} if it remains popular among multiple instances. We have analysed the cases when a robust popular matching exists in the one-sided model where only one agent alters her preference order among the instances, and we have proposed a polynomial-time algorithm to decide if there exists a robust popular matching when instances differ only with respect to the preference orders of a single agent. We give a simple characterisation of popular matchings in the two-sided model with one-sided ties. We show that in the two-sided model with one-sided ties, if the input instances differ only with respect to the preference orders of a single agent, there is a polynomial-time algorithm to decide whether there exists a robust popular matching. We have been able to decide the stable matching problem in bipartite graphs G=(AB,E)G = (A \cup B, E) where \textit{both} sides have weak preferences (ties allowed), with the restriction that every tie has length at most kk.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.25209,
  title  = {On Robust Popular Matchings with Tie-Bounded Preferences and Stable Matchings with Two-Sided Ties},
  author = {Koustav De},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.25209},
  year   = {2025}
}