On Hierarchies of Fairness Notions in Cake Cutting: From Proportionality to Super Envy-Freeness

We consider the classic cake-cutting problem of producing fair allocations for $n$ agents, in the Robertson-Webb query model. In this model, it is known that: (i) proportional allocations can be computed using $O(n\log n)$ queries, and this is optimal for deterministic protocols; (ii) envy-free allocations (a subset of proportional allocations) can be computed using $O\left(n^{n^{n^{n^{n^n}}}}\right)$ queries, and the best known lower bound is $\mathrm{\Omega }(n^2)$; (iii) perfect allocations (a subset of envy-free allocations) cannot be computed using a bounded (in $n$) number of queries. In this work, we introduce two hierarchies of new fairness notions: Complement Harmonically Bounded (CHB) and Complement Linearly Bounded (CLB). Intuitively, these notions of fairness ask that, for every agent $i$, the collective value that a group of agents has (from the perspective of agent $i$) is limited. CHB-$k$ and CLB-$k$ coincide with proportionality for $k=1$. For all $k\le n$, CHB-$k$ allocations are a superset of envy-free allocations (i.e., easier to find). On the other hand, for $k\in [2,\lceil n\mathrm{/}2\rceil -1]$, CLB-$k$ allocations are incomparable to envy-free allocations. For $k\ge \lceil n\mathrm{/}2\rceil$, CLB-$k$ allocations are a subset of envy-free allocations (i.e., harder to find). We prove that CHB-$n$ allocations can be computed using $O(n^4)$ queries in the Robertson-Webb model. On the flip side, finding CHB-$2$ (and therefore all CHB-$k$ for $k\ge 2$) allocations requires $\mathrm{\Omega }(n^2)$ queries, while CLB-$2$ (and therefore all CLB-$k$ for $k\ge 2$) allocations cannot be computed using a bounded (in $n$) number of queries.