The marriage problem and the fate of bachelors

In the marriage problem, a variant of the bi-parted matching problem, each member has a "wish-list" expressing his/her preference for all possible partners; this list consists of random, positive real numbers drawn from a certain distribution. One searches the lowest cost for the society, at the risk of breaking up pairs in the course of time. Minimization of a global cost function (Hamiltonian) is performed with statistical mechanics techniques at a finite fictitious temperature. The problem is generalized to include bachelors, needed in particular when the groups have different size, and polygamy. Exact solutions are found for the optimal solution (T = 0). The entropy is found to vanish quadratically in T. Also, other evidence is found that the replica symmetric solution is exact, implying at most a polynomial degeneracy of the optimal solution. Whether bachelors occur or not, depends not only on their intrinsic qualities, or lack thereof, but also on global aspects of the chance for pair formation in society. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.