arXiv:2604.05953cs.GTcs.AI2026-04被引 3

提出多项式时间算法,解决区间偏好下选民的最优委员会选举问题。

Polynomial-Time Algorithm for Thiele Voting Rules with Voter Interval Preferences

  • 基于区间偏好结构的凹性定理,构建可扩展解法。
  • 在任意委员会规模下,最优得分呈凹函数关系,提升计算效率。
  • 适用于比例表决等场景,适合研究投票机制与算法设计者。

我们提出一种多项式时间算法,用于在选民区间偏好域(即选民可排序使得每位候选人获得连续选民支持)上,为任意给定的Thiele投票规则计算大小为k的最优委员会。该结果扩展至广义Thiele规则,其中每位选民具有独立的权重序列。这解决了自10年前提出的开放问题——最初针对比例批准投票,后推广至所有Thiele规则(Elkind和Lackner, IJCAI 2015;Peters, AAAI 2018)。核心技术在于一个全新的区间族凹性定理:给定两个不同规模的解,可构造任意中间规模的解,其得分不低于两者的线性插值。因此,在区间偏好配置下,最优总Thiele得分是委员会规模的凹函数。我们利用该凹性,在基于拉格朗日松弛的优化框架中求解自然整数线性规划,将基数约束移入目标函数。在区间偏好情形下,所得约束矩阵为全单模,可在多项式时间内求解。主算法及其证明通过人机协作完成,其中算法所用的简化版结构性定理仅通过一次Gemini Deep Think调用即得。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

We present a polynomial-time algorithm for computing an optimal committee of size $k$ under any given Thiele voting rule for elections on the Voter Interval domain (i.e., when voters can be ordered so that each candidate is approved by a consecutive voters). Our result extends to the Generalized Thiele rule, in which each voter has an individual weight (scoring) sequence. This resolves a 10-year-old open problem that was originally posed for Proportional Approval Voting and later extended to every Thiele rule (Elkind and Lackner, IJCAI 2015; Peters, AAAI 2018). Our main technical ingredient is a new structural result -- a concavity theorem for families of intervals. It shows that, given two solutions of different sizes, one can construct a solution of any intermediate size whose score is at least the corresponding linear interpolation of the two scores. As a consequence, on Voter Interval profiles, the optimal total Thiele score is a concave function of the committee size. We exploit this concavity within an optimization framework based on a Lagrangian relaxation of a natural integer linear program formulation, obtained by moving the cardinality constraint into the objective. On Voter Interval profiles, the resulting constraint matrix is totally unimodular, so it can be solved in polynomial time. Our main algorithm and its proof were obtained via human--AI collaboration. In particular, a slightly simplified version of the main structural theorem used by the algorithm was obtained in a single call to Gemini Deep Think.

投票系统算法设计组合优化人工智能

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