The universal-rank-symmetry conjecture for the two-sided secretary problem

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In the two-sided secretary game, suppose there are UU men and UU women, each player meets NN partners over NN rounds, and preferences satisfy universal rank symmetry: if a man is ranked RRth in a woman's universal ranking, then she is ranked RRth in his universal ranking. Let RN(1)R_N(1) denote the expected NN-rank of a player entering the game under an optimal strategy. Universal-rank-symmetry conjecture. The asymptotics satisfy

lim⁡N→∞RN(1)=a constant<5.\lim_{N\rightarrow\infty}R_N(1)=\text{a constant}<5.

The paper poses the optimal-strategy problem in this symmetric setting and conjectures that universal rank symmetry changes the outcome so that the expected NN-rank remains bounded by a constant below 55; the claim is presented as an open problem.

References

Primary source

Kimmo Eriksson, Jonas Sjostrand and Pontus Strimling, “Optimal stopping in a two-sided secretary problem”, arXiv:math/0411212 (2004).

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