Multiutility representations for incomplete difference preorders

A difference preorder is a (possibly incomplete) preorder on a space of state changes (rather than the states themselves); it encodes information about preference intensity, in addition to ordinal preferences. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for a difference preorder to be representable by a family of cardinal utility functions which take values in linearly ordered abelian groups. This has applications to interpersonal comparisons, social welfare, and decisions under uncertainty.