We consider the graph matching/similarity problem of determining how similar two given graphs $G_0,G_1$ are and recovering the permutation $\pi$ on the vertices of $G_1$ that minimizes the symmetric difference between the edges of $G_0$ and $\pi(G_1)$. Graph matching/similarity has applications for pattern matching, vision, social network anonymization, malware analysis, and more. We give the first efficient algorithms proven to succeed in the correlated Erdös-Rényi model (Pedarsani and Grossglauser, 2011). Specifically, we give a polynomial time algorithm for the graph similarity/hypothesis testing task which works for every constant level of correlation between the two graphs that can be arbitrarily close to zero. We also give a quasi-polynomial ($n^{O(\log n)}$ time) algorithm for the graph matching task of recovering the permutation minimizing the symmetric difference in this model. This is the first algorithm to do so without requiring as additional input a ``seed'' of the values of the ground truth permutation on at least $n^{\Omega(1)}$ vertices. Our algorithms follow a general framework of counting the occurrences of subgraphs from a particular family of graphs allowing for tradeoffs between efficiency and accuracy.

In this paper, assuming a natural strengthening of the low-degree conjecture, we provide evidence of computational hardness for two problems: (1) the (partial) matching recovery problem in the sparse correlated Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graphs $\mathcal G(n,q;\rho)$ when the edge-density $q=n^{-1+o(1)}$ and the correlation $\rho<\sqrt{\alpha}$ lies below the Otter's threshold, solving a remaining problem in \cite{DDL23+}; (2) the detection problem between the correlated sparse stochastic block model $\mathcal S(n,\tfrac{\lambda}{n};k,\epsilon;s)$ and a pair of independent stochastic block models $\mathcal S(n,\tfrac{\lambda s}{n};k,\epsilon)$ when $\epsilon^2 \lambda s<1$ lies below the Kesten-Stigum (KS) threshold and $s<\sqrt{\alpha}$ lies below the Otter's threshold, solving a remaining problem in \cite{CDGL24+}. One of the main ingredient in our proof is to derive certain forms of \emph{algorithmic contiguity} between two probability measures based on bounds on their low-degree advantage. To be more precise, consider the high-dimensional hypothesis testing problem between two probability measures $\mathbb{P}$ and $\mathbb{Q}$ based on the sample $\mathsf Y$. We show that if the low-degree advantage $\mathsf{Adv}_{\leq D} \big( \frac{\mathrm{d}\mathbb{P}}{\mathrm{d}\mathbb{Q}} \big)=O(1)$, then (assuming the low-degree conjecture) there is no efficient algorithm $\mathcal A$ such that $\mathbb{Q}(\mathcal A(\mathsf Y)=0)=1-o(1)$ and $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal A(\mathsf Y)=1)=\Omega(1)$. This framework provides a useful tool for performing reductions between different inference tasks.

I find the problem to be reasonable well motivated and the work non trivial. Analyzing subgraph counts is usually difficult and this work is no exception. The construction of the family of subgraph is novel and may find applications elsewhere. The paper is well written and the authors do a good job in communicating their ideas in a coherent and understandable fashion. My biggest concern is the disconnect between the theory and experiments.

The reviewers are all positive about the paper. The authors should seriously consider whether Section 5 in the paper as it currently stands is suitable. There is a view among the reviewers that it does more harm than good. Experiments are not really necessary in a NeurIPS paper, and if the gap between the theory set-up and the experimental set-up is large, it is probably worth removing them altogether. In any case, a proper discussion should be added if the section is retained.

We consider the graph matching/similarity problem of determining how similar two given graphs G_0,G_1 are and recovering the permutation \pi on the vertices of G_1 that minimizes the symmetric difference between the edges of G_0 and \pi(G_1) . Graph matching/similarity has applications for pattern matching, vision, social network anonymization, malware analysis, and more. We give the first efficient algorithms proven to succeed in the correlated Erdös-Rényi model (Pedarsani and Grossglauser, 2011). Specifically, we give a polynomial time algorithm for the graph similarity/hypothesis testing task which works for every constant level of correlation between the two graphs that can be arbitrarily close to zero. We also give a quasi-polynomial ( n {O(\log n)} time) algorithm for the graph matching task of recovering the permutation minimizing the symmetric difference in this model.

For two correlated graphs which are independently sub-sampled from a common Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graph $\mathbf{G}(n, p)$, we wish to recover their \emph{latent} vertex matching from the observation of these two graphs \emph{without labels}. When $p = n^{-\alpha+o(1)}$ for $\alpha\in (0, 1]$, we establish a sharp information-theoretic threshold for whether it is possible to correctly match a positive fraction of vertices. Our result sharpens a constant factor in a recent work by Wu, Xu and Yu.

We consider the graph matching/similarity problem of determining how similar two given graphs $G_0,G_1$ are and recovering the permutation $\pi$ on the vertices of $G_1$ that minimizes the symmetric difference between the edges of $G_0$ and $\pi(G_1)$. Graph matching/similarity has applications for pattern matching, vision, social network anonymization, malware analysis, and more. We give the first efficient algorithms proven to succeed in the correlated Erdös-Rényi model (Pedarsani and Grossglauser, 2011). Specifically, we give a polynomial time algorithm for the graph similarity/hypothesis testing task which works for every constant level of correlation between the two graphs that can be arbitrarily close to zero. We also give a quasi-polynomial ($n {O(\log n)}$ time) algorithm for the graph matching task of recovering the permutation minimizing the symmetric difference in this model. This is the first algorithm to do so without requiring as additional input a seed'' of the values of the ground truth permutation on at least $n {\Omega(1)}$ vertices.