3 research outputs found
An algebraic formulation of the graph reconstruction conjecture
The graph reconstruction conjecture asserts that every finite simple graph on
at least three vertices can be reconstructed up to isomorphism from its deck -
the collection of its vertex-deleted subgraphs. Kocay's Lemma is an important
tool in graph reconstruction. Roughly speaking, given the deck of a graph
and any finite sequence of graphs, it gives a linear constraint that every
reconstruction of must satisfy.
Let be the number of distinct (mutually non-isomorphic) graphs on
vertices, and let be the number of distinct decks that can be
constructed from these graphs. Then the difference measures
how many graphs cannot be reconstructed from their decks. In particular, the
graph reconstruction conjecture is true for -vertex graphs if and only if
.
We give a framework based on Kocay's lemma to study this discrepancy. We
prove that if is a matrix of covering numbers of graphs by sequences of
graphs, then . In particular, all
-vertex graphs are reconstructible if one such matrix has rank . To
complement this result, we prove that it is possible to choose a family of
sequences of graphs such that the corresponding matrix of covering numbers
satisfies .Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure