The solution of generalized stable sets and its refinement (Q2243513)

The authors review results on the solution of generalized stable sets for abstract decision problems, in the case of irreflexive but not necessarily asymmetric or complete dominance relations. Although the fundamental properties of this solution are preserved for this kind of dominance relations, they may contain Pareto-suboptimal alternatives when the dominance relation is derived from pairwise majority comparison, and may fail to discriminate among the alternatives under consideration when the dominance relation is a Hamilton cycle, i.e., a cycle that includes all alternatives. A refinement of generalized stable sets is proposed in order to address these shortcomings, in which case the undisturbed generalized stable sets are Pareto optimal and have discriminating power in the case of Hamilton cycles. Moreover, this refinement is always a subset of the solutions of the uncovered set and of the unsurpassed set. This implies that undisturbed generalized stable set also may be seen as a refinement of both the uncovered set and the unsurpassed set