Fair division is the problem of dividing a set of
goods or
resources between several people who have an
entitlement to them, such that each person receives his/her due share. This problem arises in various real-world settings: auctions,
divorce settlements, electronic spectrum and
frequency allocation, airport traffic management, or exploitation of
Earth Observation Satellites. This is an active research area in
Mathematics,
Economics (especially
Social choice theory),
Game theory,
Dispute resolution, and more. The central tenet of fair division is that such a division should be performed by the players themselves, maybe using a
mediator but certainly not an
arbiter as only the players really know how they value the goods.