Related papers: The complexity of sharing a pizza
A division of a cake by n people is envy free if everyone thinks they got the biggest pieces. Note that peoples tastes can differ. There is a discrete protocol for envy free division for n=3 which takes at most 5 cuts. For n=4 and beyond…
Cake cutting is a classic fair division problem, with the cake serving as a metaphor for a heterogeneous divisible resource. Recently, it was shown that for any number of players with arbitrary preferences over a cake, it is possible to…
We prove that at least $\Omega(n^{0.51})$ hyperplanes are needed to slice all edges of the $n$-dimensional hypercube. We provide a couple of applications: lower bounds on the computational complexity of parity, and a lower bound on the…
We introduce a generalized cake-cutting problem in which we seek to divide multiple cakes so that two players may get their most-preferred piece selections: a choice of one piece from each cake, allowing for the possibility of linked…
We show that the problem of covering a set of points in the plane with a minimum number of guillotine cuts is NP-complete. To that end, first we present a new NP-completeness proof for the problem of covering points with disjoint line…
In this article, the issue of choice cuts made to a rectangular region are considered and explored. Results show that this problem is not trivial. Outcomes for teaching and learning are considered.
An unceasing problem of our prevailing society is the fair division of goods. The problem of proportional cake cutting focuses on dividing a heterogeneous and divisible resource, the cake, among $n$ players who value pieces according to…
We consider the problem of partitioning a line segment into two subsets, so that $n$ finite measures all have the same ratio of values for the subsets. Letting $\alpha\in[0,1]$ denote the desired ratio, this generalises the PPA-complete…
Two people meet in a coffeehouse and decide to share one dessert from a menu of several possible choices. How should they choose which one? A method is presented that is intended to be practical, avoiding the need for long negotiations or…
We consider the problem of fairly dividing a two dimensional heterogeneous good among multiple players. Applications include division of land as well as ad space in print and electronic media. Classical cake cutting protocols primarily…
In the March 2025 issue of Pour la Science, Jean-Paul Delahaye described a wonderful solution to the following problem: How many ways can you divide a 3 by 2n rectangle into two connected, congruent pieces? We show that this problem can be…
A fundamental result in cake cutting states that for any number of players with arbitrary preferences over a cake, there exists a division of the cake such that every player receives a single contiguous piece and no player is left envious.…
We study the proportional chore division problem where a protocol wants to divide an undesirable object, called chore, among $n$ different players. The goal is to find an allocation such that the cost of the chore assigned to each player be…
We prove that the number of tile types required to build squares of size n x n, in Winfree's abstract Tile Assembly Model, when restricted to using only non-cooperative tile bindings, is at least 2n-1, which is also the best known upper…
In the first chapter of their classic book "Concrete Mathematics", Graham, Knuth, and Patashnik consider the maximum number of pieces that can be obtained from a pancake by making n cuts with a knife blade that is straight, or bent into a…
Consider the set $\{1,2,\ldots,3n\}$. We are interested in the number of partitions of this set into subsets of three elements each, where the sum of two of them equals the third. We give some criteria such a partition has to fulfill, which…
The Satisfactory Partition problem consists in deciding if the set of vertices of a given undirected graph can be partitioned into two nonempty parts such that each vertex has at least as many neighbours in its part as in the other part.…
We resolve the computational complexity of two problems known as NECKLACE-SPLITTING and DISCRETE HAM SANDWICH, showing that they are PPA-complete. For NECKLACE SPLITTING, this result is specific to the important special case in which two…
Consider the $n$-cube graph with vertices $\{-1,1\}^n$ and edges connecting vertices with hamming distance $1$. How many hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ are needed in order to dissect all edges? We show that at least…
We study the problem of partitioning a given simple polygon $P$ into a minimum number of connected polygonal pieces, each of bounded size. We describe a general technique for constructing such partitions that works for several notions of…