提出高效算法解决特定选民结构下的委员会选举问题
Algorithms for Structured Elections under Thiele Voting Rules
- 基于选民区间结构设计固定参数可解算法
- 在每候选仅被两人支持时实现多项式时间求解
- 为比例代表制等规则提供新计算框架,适合政治建模者
我们研究在基于批准的委员会选举中,以Thiele投票规则为背景的胜者确定问题的计算复杂性。这类规则由固定权重向量参数化,用于描述选民满意度随当选获批候选人数量的变化。通过分析每位候选人被哪些选民支持所形成的选民集合结构,揭示了在任意固定Thiele规则下最优委员会的约束条件。基于此,我们在一个自然的受限领域——选民区间(VI)域上,为比例批准投票(PAV)及其他Thiele规则设计了固定参数可解(FPT)算法,即在选民按适当顺序排列后,每位候选人获得的批准来自连续的选民区间。特别地,我们证明了在任意给定的参数下,即使该参数取常数值,这些规则在一般实例上仍为NP-hard,但在VI域上是FPT的。本研究推进了对PAV在选民区间实例上计算复杂性的理解,解决了该领域长期存在的核心开放问题。此外,我们还解决了文献中关于PAV及其他Thiele规则的两个未决问题:提供了当每个候选人最多被两名选民支持时的多项式时间算法,以及基于获胜委员会总得分的FPT算法。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We study the computational complexity of winner determination problems in approval-based committee elections under Thiele voting rules. These form a class of rules parameterized by a fixed weight vector that specifies how a voter's satisfaction depends on the number of approved candidates elected. We first analyze the structure of optimal solutions based on the sets of voters who approve each candidate---that is, how voters' approval ballots induce dependencies between candidates---revealing constraints on a winning committee under any fixed Thiele voting rule. Using this, we design FPT algorithms for Proportional Approval Voting (PAV) and other Thiele rules on a natural restricted domain known as the Voter Interval (VI) domain---that is, after a suitable ordering of voters, each candidate is approved by a consecutive interval of voters. In particular, we show that every Thiele rule on VI is FPT with respect to a parameter for which the problem is NP-hard on general instances, even when the parameter takes constant values. Our results advance the understanding of the computational complexity of PAV on Voter Interval instances, which remains one of the central open questions in this area. We further resolve two open questions from the literature on PAV (and other Thiele voting rules) by providing a polynomial-time algorithm for instances where each candidate is approved by at most two voters, and an FPT algorithm parameterized by the total score of a winning committee.
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