Tight Lower Bounds on Envy-Free Makespan Approximation

Abstract: In this work we give a tight lower bound on makespan approximations for envy-free allocation mechanism dedicated to scheduling tasks on unrelated machines. Specifically, we show that no mechanism exists that can guarantee an envy-free allocation of jobs to $m$ machines with a makespan of less than a factor of $O(\log m)$ of the minimal makespan. Combined with previous results, this paper definitively proves that the optimal algorithm for obtaining a minimal makespan for any envy-free division can at best approximate the makespan to a factor of $O(\log m)$.