Approximately Counting Embeddings into Random Graphs

• Published in: Combinatorics, probability & computing probability & computing, 2014-11, Vol.23 (6), p.1028-1056
• Main Authors: FÜRER, MARTIN, KASIVISWANATHAN, SHIVA PRASAD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Counting; Decomposition; Graph theory; Graphs; Labelling; Labels; Polynomials
• ISSN: 0963-5483; 1469-2163
• DOI: 10.1017/S0963548314000339

Let H be a graph, and let CH(G) be the number of (subgraph isomorphic) copies of H contained in a graph G. We investigate the fundamental problem of estimating CH(G). Previous results cover only a few specific instances of this general problem, for example the case when H has degree at most one (the monomer-dimer problem). In this paper we present the first general subcase of the subgraph isomorphism counting problem, which is almost always efficiently approximable. The results rely on a new graph decomposition technique. Informally, the decomposition is a labelling of the vertices such that every edge is between vertices with different labels, and for every vertex all neighbours with a higher label have identical labels. The labelling implicitly generates a sequence of bipartite graphs, which permits us to break the problem of counting embeddings of large subgraphs into that of counting embeddings of small subgraphs. Using this method, we present a simple randomized algorithm for the counting problem. For all decomposable graphs H and all graphs G, the algorithm is an unbiased estimator. Furthermore, for all graphs H having a decomposition where each of the bipartite graphs generated is small and almost all graphs G, the algorithm is a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme. We show that the graph classes of H for which we obtain a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme for almost all G includes graphs of degree at most two, bounded-degree forests, bounded-width grid graphs, subdivision of bounded-degree graphs, and major subclasses of outerplanar graphs, series-parallel graphs and planar graphs of large girth, whereas unbounded-width grid graphs are excluded. Moreover, our general technique can easily be applied to proving many more similar results.