English

Pebble games with algebraic rules

Logic in Computer Science 2015-03-20 v2

Abstract

We define a general framework of partition games for formulating two-player pebble games over finite structures. We show that one particular such game, which we call the invertible-map game, yields a family of polynomial-time approximations of graph isomorphism that is strictly stronger than the well-known Weisfeiler-Lehman method. The general framework we introduce includes as special cases the pebble games for finite-variable logics with and without counting. It also includes a matrix-equivalence game, introduced here, which characterises equivalence in the finite-variable fragments of matrix-rank logic. We show that the equivalence defined by the invertible-map game is a refinement of the equivalence defined by each of these games for finite-variable logics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1205.0913,
  title  = {Pebble games with algebraic rules},
  author = {Anuj Dawar and Bjarki Holm},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.0913},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:58:36.156Z