Abstract
We investigate the power of graph isomorphism algorithms based on algebraic reasoning techniques like Gröbner basis computation. The idea of these algorithms is to encode two graphs into a system of equations that are satisfiable if and only if if the graphs are isomorphic, and then to (try to) decide satisfiability of the system using, for example, the Gröbner basis algorithm. In some cases this can be done in polynomial time, in particular, if the equations admit a bounded degree refutation in an algebraic proof systems such as Nullstellensatz or polynomial calculus. We prove linear lower bounds on the polynomial calculus degree over all fields of characteristic \(\ne 2\) and also linear lower bounds for the degree of Positivstellensatz calculus derivations.
We compare this approach to recently studied linear and semidefinite programming approaches to isomorphism testing, which are known to be related to the combinatorial Weisfeiler-Lehman algorithm. We exactly characterise the power of the Weisfeiler-Lehman algorithm in terms of an algebraic proof system that lies between degree-k Nullstellensatz and degree-k polynomial calculus.
RWTH Aachen University—The first author is currently at KTH Stockholm, supported by a fellowship within the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
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Berkholz, C., Grohe, M. (2015). Limitations of Algebraic Approaches to Graph Isomorphism Testing. In: Halldórsson, M., Iwama, K., Kobayashi, N., Speckmann, B. (eds) Automata, Languages, and Programming. ICALP 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9134. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47672-7_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47672-7_13
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