算法 | 稳定匹配 - Stable Matching

Stable Matching

Definition

Goal: Given n men and n women, find a "suitable" matching.

  • Participants rate members of opposite sex.
  • Each man lists women in order of preference from best to worst.
  • Each woman lists men in order of preference from best to worst.

特征:二分图,按照优先度排序

Unstable pair: applicant x and hospital y are unstable if:

  • x prefers y to its assigned hospital
  • y prefers x to one of its admitted students.

Stable assignment: Assignment with no unstable pairs.

  • Natural and desirable condition.
  • Individual self-interest will prevent any applicant/hospital deal from being made.

Perfect matching: everyone is matched monogamously

  • Each man gets exactly one woman.
  • Each woman gets exactly one man.

Stability:no incentive for some pair of participants to undermine assignment by joint action。

  • In matching M, an unmatched pair m-w is unstable if man m and woman w prefer each other to current partners.
  • Unstable pair m-w could each improve by eloping.

Stable matching:perfect matching with no unstable pairs.

Stable matching problem: Given the preference lists of n men and n women, find a stable matching if one exists.

稳定匹配不一定存在,如分配室友:

Stable roommate problem:

  • 2n people; each person ranks others from 1 to 2n-1.
  • Assign roommate pairs so that no unstable pairs.

此反例可以结合二分图中的相关证明理解

Gale-Shapley Algorithm

Initialize each person to be free.
while (some man is free and hasn't proposed to every woman) {
	Choose such a man m
 		w = 1st woman on m's list to whom m has not yet proposed
 	if (w is free)
 		assign m and w to be engaged
 	else if (w prefers m to her fiancé m')
 		assign m and w to be engaged, and m' to be free
 	else
 	w rejects m
}

Proof of Correctness

Termination

Observation:

  • Men propose to women in decreasing order of preference
  • Once a woman is matched, she never becomes unmatched; she only "trades up."

Claim: Algorithm terminates after at most $n^2$ iterations of while loop.

Each time through the while loop a man proposes to a new woman. There are only n2 possible proposals.

Perfection

Claim. All men and women get matched.

Pf. (by contradiction)

  • Suppose, for sake of contradiction, that Zeus is not matched upontermination of algorithm.
  • Then some woman, say Amy, is not matched upon termination.
  • By Observation 2, Amy was never proposed to.
  • But, Zeus proposes to everyone, since he ends up unmatched. ▪

Stability

Claim. No unstable pairs.

Pf. (by contradiction)

  • Suppose A-Z is an unstable pair: each prefers each other topartner in Gale-Shapley matching S*.
  • Case 1: Z never proposed to A.
  • Z prefers his GS partner to A.
  • A-Z is stable.
  • Case 2: Z proposed to A.
  • A rejected Z (right away or later)
  • A prefers her GS partner to Z.
  • A-Z is stable.
  • In either case A-Z is stable, a contradiction. ▪

Efficient Implementation

Representing men and women:

  • Assume men are named 1, …, n.
  • Assume women are named 1', …, n'.

Engagements:

  • Maintain a list of free men, e.g., in a queue
  • Maintain two arrays wife[m], and husband[w].
  • set entry to 0 if unmatched
  • if m matched to w then wife[m]=w and husband[w]=m

Men proposing:

  • For each man, maintain a list of women, ordered by preference
  • Maintain an array count[m] that counts the number of proposalsmade by man m.

也可以基于链表实现,删除头节点即可

Women rejecting/accepting:

  • For each woman, create inverse of preference list of men.
  • Constant time access for each query after O(n) preprocessing.

Other Understanding

  1. 对于解不唯一的样例,Gale-Shapley 算法总会给出相同的匹配吗?
  • valid partner: Man m is a valid partner of woman w if there exists some stablematching in which they are matched.
  • Man-optimal assignment: Each man receives best valid partner.

All executions of GS yield man-optimal assignment, which is a stable matching.

主动方占优,该算法男性主动发出匹配请求。

Man Optimality

Claim. _GS matching S is man-optimal._*

Pf. (by contradiction)

  1. (S* ) Suppose some man is paired with someone other than bestpartner. Men propose in decreasing order of preference  someman is rejected by valid partner.
  2. (S* ) Let Y be first such man, and let A be first valid woman that rejects him.
  3. Let S be a stable matching where A and Y are matched.
  4. (S* ) When Y is rejected, A forms (or reaffirms) engagement with a man, say Z, whom she prefers to Y.
  5. Let B be Z's partner in S.
  6. (S* ) Z not rejected by any valid partner at the point when Y is rejected by A. Thus, Z prefers A to B. (2,4)
  7. (S* ) But A prefers Z to Y. (4)
  8. Thus A-Z is unstable in S.

Woman Pessimality

  • Woman-pessimal assignment. Each woman receives worst valid partner.

Claim. GS finds woman-pessimal stable matching S*

Pf.

  1. Suppose A-Z matched in S*, but Z is not worst valid partner for A.
  2. There exists stable matching S in which A is paired with a man, sayY, whom she likes less than Z.
  3. Let B be Z's partner in S.
  4. Z prefers A to B (in S*. A and B are both valid partners). [man-optimality]
  5. Thus, A-Z is an unstable in S

END

updatedupdated2023-01-302023-01-30
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