Symmetry in Finite Combinatorial Objects: Scalable Methods and Applications.

Symmetries of combinatorial objects are known to complicate search algorithms, but such obstacles can often be removed by detecting symmetries early and discarding symmetric subproblems. Canonical labeling of combinatorial objects facilitates easy equivalence checking through quick matching. All existing canonical-labeling software also finds symmetries, but the fastest symmetry-finding software does not perform canonical labeling. In this thesis, we describe highly scalable symmetry-detection algorithms for two widely-used combinatorial objects: graphs and Boolean functions. Our algorithms are based on a decision tree that combines elements of group-theoretic computation with branching and backtracking search. Moreover, we contrast the search for graph symmetries and a canonical labeling to dissect typical algorithms and identify their similarities and differences. We develop a novel approach to graph canonical labeling where symmetries are found first and then used to speed up the canonical-labeling routines. Empirical results are given for graphs with millions of vertices and Boolean functions with hundreds of I/Os, where our algorithms can often find all symmetry group generators or a canonical labeling in seconds.PHDComputer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100003/1/hadik_1.pd

Combinatorial refinement on circulant graphs

The combinatorial refinement techniques have proven to be an efficient approach to isomorphism testing for particular classes of graphs. If the number of refinement rounds is small, this puts the corresponding isomorphism problem in a low-complexity class. We investigate the round complexity of the 2-dimensional Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm on circulant graphs, i.e. on Cayley graphs of the cyclic group $\mathbb{Z}_n$, and prove that the number of rounds until stabilization is bounded by $\mathcal{O}(d(n)\log n)$, where $d(n)$ is the number of divisors of $n$. As a particular consequence, isomorphism can be tested in NC for connected circulant graphs of order $p^\ell$ with $p$ an odd prime, $\ell>3$ and vertex degree $\Delta$ smaller than $p$. We also show that the color refinement method (also known as the 1-dimensional Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm) computes a canonical labeling for every non-trivial circulant graph with a prime number of vertices after individualization of two appropriately chosen vertices. Thus, the canonical labeling problem for this class of graphs has at most the same complexity as color refinement, which results in a time bound of $\mathcal{O}(\Delta n\log n)$. Moreover, this provides a first example where a sophisticated approach to isomorphism testing put forward by Tinhofer has a real practical meaning.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

Graph Symmetry Detection and Canonical Labeling: Differences and Synergies

Symmetries of combinatorial objects are known to complicate search algorithms, but such obstacles can often be removed by detecting symmetries early and discarding symmetric subproblems. Canonical labeling of combinatorial objects facilitates easy equivalence checking through quick matching. All existing canonical labeling software also finds symmetries, but the fastest symmetry-finding software does not perform canonical labeling. In this work, we contrast the two problems and dissect typical algorithms to identify their similarities and differences. We then develop a novel approach to canonical labeling where symmetries are found first and then used to speed up the canonical labeling algorithms. Empirical results show that this approach outperforms state-of-the-art canonical labelers.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, Turing-10