English

Accumulation points of the edit distance function

Combinatorics 2022-02-15 v2

Abstract

Given a hereditary property H\mathcal H of graphs and some p[0,1]p\in[0,1], the edit distance function edH(p)\operatorname{ed}_{\mathcal H}(p) is (asymptotically) the maximum proportion of "edits" (edge-additions plus edge-deletions) necessary to transform any graph of density pp into a member of H\mathcal H. For any fixed p[0,1]p\in[0,1], edH(p)\operatorname{ed}_{\mathcal H}(p) can be computed from an object known as a colored regularity graph (CRG). This paper is concerned with those points p[0,1]p\in[0,1] for which infinitely many CRGs are required to compute edH\operatorname{ed}_{\mathcal H} on any open interval containing pp; such a pp is called an accumulation point. We show that, as expected, p=0p=0 and p=1p=1 are indeed accumulation points for some hereditary properties; we additionally determine the slope of edH\operatorname{ed}_{\mathcal H} at these two extreme points. Unexpectedly, we construct a hereditary property with an accumulation point at p=1/4p=1/4. Finally, we derive a significant structural property about those CRGs which occur at accumulation points.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.06706,
  title  = {Accumulation points of the edit distance function},
  author = {Christopher Cox and Ryan R. Martin and Daniel McGinnis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.06706},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

22 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:11:30.826Z