Graph Isomorphism

Algorithms and networks

 Today
Graph isomorphism: definition
Complexity: isomorphism completeness
The refinement heuristic
Isomorphism for trees
Rooted trees
Unrooted trees

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 Graph Isomorphism
Two graphs G=(V,E) and H=(W,F) are
isomorphic if there is a bijective function f:
V W such that for all v, w V:
{v,w} E {f(v),f(w)} F

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 Applications
Chemistry: databases of molecules (etc.)
Actually needed: canonical form of molecule
structure / graph
Other, e.g., speeding up algorithms for
highly symmetric graphs

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 Variant for labeled graphs
Let G = (V,E), H=(W,F) be graphs with vertex
labelings l: V L, l L.
G and H are isomorphic labeled graphs, if there is
a bijective function f: V W such that
For all v, w V: {v,w} E {f(v),f(w)} F
For all v V: l(v) = l(f(v)).
Application: organic chemistry:
determining if two molecules are identical.

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 Complexity of graph
isomorphism
Problem is in NP, but
No NP-completeness proof is known
No polynomial time algorithm is known
If GI is NP-complete, then strange things happen
Polynomial time hierarchy collapses to a finite level
If P NP
NP-complete ? isomorphism
Graph

NP P

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 Isomorphism-complete
Problems are isomorphism-
complete, if they are `equally hard
as graph isomorphism
Isomorphism of bipartite graphs
Isomorphism of labeled graphs
Automorphism of graphs
Given: a graph G=(V,E)
Question: is there a non-trivial
automorphism, i.e., a bijective function f: V
V, not the identity, with for all v,wV:
{v,w} E, if and only if {f(v),f(w)} E.

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 More isomorphism complete
problems
Finding a graph isomorphism f
Isomorphism of semi-groups
Isomorphism of finite automata
Isomorphism of finite algebras
Isomorphism of
Connected graphs
Directed graphs
Regular graphs
Perfect graphs
Chordal graphs
Graphs that are isomorphic with their complement

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 Special cases are easier
Polynomial time algorithms for
Graphs of bounded degree
Planar graphs
This course
Trees
Bounded treewidth
Expected polynomial time for random
graphs

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 An equivalence relation on
vertices
Say v ~ w, if and only if there is an
automorphism mapping v to w.
~ is an equivalence relation
Partitions the vertices in automorphism
classes
Tells on structure of graph

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Iterative vertex partition heuristic
the idea
Partition the vertices of G and H in classes
Each class for G has a corresponding class
for H.
Property: vertices in class must be mapped
to vertices in corresponding class
Refine classes as long as possible
When no refinement possible, check all
possible ways that `remain.
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Iterative vertex partition heuristic
If |V| |W|, or |E| |F|, output: no. Done.
Otherwise, we partition the vertices of G and H
into classes, such that
Each class for G has a corresponding class for H
If f is an isomorphism from G to H, then f(v) belongs to
the class, corresponding to the class of v.
First try: vertices belong to the same class, when
they have the same degree.
If f is an isomorphism, then the degree of f(v) equals the
degree of v for each vertex v.
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 Scheme
Start with sequence SG = (A1) of subsets of G
with A1=V, and sequence SH = (B1) of subsets of
H with B1=W.
Repeat until
Replace Ai in SG by Ai1,,Air and replace Bi in SH by
Bi1,,Bir.
Ai1,,Air is partition of Ai
Bi1,,Bir is partition of Bi
For each isormorphism f: v in Aij if and only if f(v) in Bij

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 Possible refinement
Count for each vertex in Ai and Bi how many
neighbors they have in Aj and Bj for some i, j.
Set Ais = {v in Ai | v has s neighbors in Aj}.
Set Bis = {v in Bi | v has s neighbors in Bj}.
Invariant: for all v in the ith set in SG, f(v) in the
ith set in SH.
If some |Ai| |Bi|, then stop: no isomorphism.

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 Other refinements
Partition upon other characteristics of
vertices
Label
Number of vertices at distance d (in a set Ai).

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 After refining
If each Ai contains one vertex: check the
only possible isomorphism.
Otherwise, cleverly enumerate all functions
that are still possible, and check these.
Works well in practice!

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 Isomorphism on trees
Linear time algorithm to test if two
(labeled) trees are isomorphic. (Aho,
Hopcroft, Ullman, 1974)
Algorithm to test if two rooted trees are
isomorphic.
Used as a subroutine for unrooted trees.

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 Rooted tree isomorphism
For a vertex v in T, let T(v) be the subtree of
T with v as root.
Level of vertex: distance to root.
If T1 and T2 have different number of levels:
not isomorphic, and we stop. Otherwise, we
continue:

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 Structure of algorithm
Tree is processed level by level, from bottom to
root
Processing a level:
A long label for each vertex is computed
This is transformed to a short label
Vertices in the same layer whose subtrees are
isomorphic get the same labels:
If v and w on the same level, then
L(v)=L(w), if and only if T(v) and T(w) are
isomorphic with an isomorphism that maps v to w.
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 Labeling procedure
For each vertex, get the set of labels assigned to its
children.
Sort these sets.
Bucketsort the pairs (L(w), v) for T1, w child of v
Bucketsort the pairs (L(w), v) for T2, w child of v
For each v, we now have a long label LL(v) which
is the sorted set of labels of the children.
Use bucketsort to sort the vertices in T1 and T2
such that vertices with same long label are
consecutive in ordering.
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On sorting w.r.t. the long lists (1)
Preliminary work:
Sort the nodes is the layer on the number of
children they have.
Linear time. (Counting sort / Radix sort.)
Make a set of pairs (j,i) with (j,i) in the set
when the jth number in a long list is i.
Radix sort this set of pairs.

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On sorting w.r.t. the long lists (2)
Let q be the maximum length of a long list
Repeat
Distribute among buckets the nodes with at least q
children, with respect to the qth label in their long list
Nodes distributed in buckets in earlier round are taken here in
the order as they appear in these buckets.
The sorted list of pairs (j,i) is used to skip empty buckets in
this step.
q --;
Until q=0.
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 After vertices are sorted with
respect to long label
Give vertices with same long label same
short label (start counting at 0), and repeat
at next level.
If we see that the set of labels for a level of
T1 is not equal to the set for the same level
of T2, stop: not isomorphic.

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 Time
One layer with n1 nodes with n2 nodes in
next layer costs O(n1 + n2) time.
Total time: O(n).

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 Unrooted trees
Center of a tree
A vertex v with the property that the maximum distance to
any other vertex in T is as small as possible.
Each tree has a center of one or two vertices.
Finding the center:
Repeat until we have a vertex or a single edge:
Remove all leaves from T.
O(n) time: each vertex maintains current degree in
variable. Variables are updated when vertices are
removed, and vertices put in set of leaves when their
degree becomes 1.
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 Isomorphism of unrooted trees
Note: the center must be mapped to the center
If T1 and T2 both have a center of size 1:
Use those vertices as root.
If T1 and T2 both have a center of size 2:
Try the two different ways of mapping the centers
Or: subdivide the edge between the two centers and
take the new vertices as root
Otherwise: not isomorphic.
1 or 2 calls to isomorphism of rooted trees: O(n).
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 Conclusions
Similar methods work for finding
automorphisms
We saw: heuristic for arbitrary graphs,
algorithm for trees
There are algorithms for several special
graph classes (e.g., planar graphs, graphs of
bounded degree,)

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