English

How many cliques can a clique cover cover?

Combinatorics 2022-07-01 v1

Abstract

This work examines the problem of clique enumeration on a graph by exploiting its clique covers. The principle of inclusion/exclusion is applied to determine the number of cliques of size rr in the graph union of a set C={c1,,cm}\mathcal{C} = \{c_1, \ldots, c_m\} of mm cliques. This leads to a deeper examination of the sets involved and to an orbit partition, Γ\Gamma, of the power set P(Nm)\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{N}_{m}) of Nm={1,,m}\mathcal{N}_{m} = \{1, \ldots, m\}. Applied to the cliques, this partition gives insight into clique enumeration and yields new results on cliques within a clique cover, including expressions for the number of cliques of size rr as well as generating functions for the cliques on these graphs. The quotient graph modulo this partition provides a succinct representation to determine cliques and maximal cliques in the graph union. The partition also provides a natural and powerful framework for related problems, such as the enumeration of induced connected components, by drawing upon a connection to extremal set theory through intersecting sets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.14895,
  title  = {How many cliques can a clique cover cover?},
  author = {Pavel Shuldiner and R. Wayne Oldford},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.14895},
  year   = {2022}
}