English

Unique subgraphs are rare

Combinatorics 2024-10-22 v1

Abstract

A folklore result attributed to P\'olya states that there are (1+o(1))2(n2)/n!(1 + o(1))2^{\binom{n}{2}}/n! non-isomorphic graphs on nn vertices. Given two graphs GG and HH, we say that GG is a unique subgraph of HH if HH contains exactly one subgraph isomorphic to GG. For an nn-vertex graph HH, let f(H)f(H) be the number of non-isomorphic unique subgraphs of HH divided by 2(n2)/n!2^{\binom{n}{2}}/n! and let f(n)f(n) denote the maximum of f(H)f(H) over all graphs HH on nn vertices. In 1975, Erd\H{o}s asked whether there exists δ>0\delta>0 such that f(n)>δf(n)>\delta for all nn and offered \100foraproofand for a proof and $25foradisproof,indicatinghedoesnotbelievethistobetrue.WeverifyErdo˝sintuitionbyshowingthat for a disproof, indicating he does not believe this to be true. We verify Erd\H{o}s' intuition by showing that f(n)\rightarrow 0as as ntendstoinfinity,i.e.nographon tends to infinity, i.e. no graph on nverticescontainsaconstantproportionofallgraphson vertices contains a constant proportion of all graphs on n$ vertices as unique subgraphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.16233,
  title  = {Unique subgraphs are rare},
  author = {Domagoj Bradač and Micha Christoph},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.16233},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:30:10.427Z