Average-case and smoothed analysis of graph isomorphism

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple local algorithm for graph isomorphism that works efficiently on sparse graphs and demonstrates that small random perturbations can make the problem easier, showing polynomial smoothed complexity.

Contribution

It proves new bounds for when local neighborhoods suffice for graph isomorphism and establishes smoothed analysis results for the problem.

Findings

3-neighborhoods identify isomorphism classes above the connectivity threshold

Small random perturbations typically enable canonical labeling

Graph isomorphism has polynomial smoothed complexity

Abstract

We propose a simple and efficient local algorithm for graph isomorphism which succeeds for a large class of sparse graphs. This algorithm produces a low-depth canonical labeling, which is a labeling of the vertices of the graph that identifies its isomorphism class using vertices' local neighborhoods. Prior work by Czajka and Pandurangan showed that the degree profile of a vertex (i.e., the sorted list of the degrees of its neighbors) gives a canonical labeling with high probability when $n p_n = \omega( \log^{4}(n) / \log \log n )$ (and $p_{n} \leq 1/2$); subsequently, Mossel and Ross showed that the same holds when $n p_n = \omega( \log^{2}(n) )$. We first show that their analysis essentially cannot be improved: we prove that when $n p_n = o( \log^{2}(n) / (\log \log n)^{3} )$, with high probability there exist distinct vertices with isomorphic $2$-neighborhoods. Our first main result is a positive counterpart to this, showing that $3$-neighborhoods give a canonical labeling when $n p_n \geq (1+\delta) \log n$ (and $p_n \leq 1/2$); this improves a recent result of Ding, Ma, Wu, and Xu, completing the picture above the connectivity threshold. Our second main result is a smoothed analysis of graph isomorphism, showing that for a large class of deterministic graphs, a small random perturbation ensures that $3$-neighborhoods give a canonical labeling with high probability. While the worst-case complexity of graph isomorphism is still unknown, this shows that graph isomorphism has polynomial smoothed complexity.