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Rado Graph


The Rado graph, also called the countable random graph, is the unique countably infinite simple graph, up to graph isomorphism, with the following property. For any two disjoint finite sets X and Y of vertices, there is a graph vertex z outside X union Y that is adjacent to every graph vertex in X and to no graph vertex in Y (Rado 1964, Cameron 1997, 2001; Bondy and Murty 2008, p. 341).

A random graph on a countably infinite set of vertices, formed by independently including each possible graph edge with probability 1/2, has this property with probability one. Consequently, it is isomorphic to the Rado graph with probability one (Cameron 1997, 2001; Bondy and Murty 2008, p. 341). This infinite graph is distinct from any individual finite realization of a random graph.

This property also implies that every finite graph occurs as an induced subgraph of the Rado graph. Its vertices can be chosen successively, prescribing adjacency and nonadjacency to all previously chosen vertices at each step.


See also

Graph Isomorphism, Induced Subgraph, Infinite Graph, Random Graph

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References

Bondy, J. A. and Murty, U. S. R. Graph Theory. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag, p. 341, 2008.Cameron, P. J. "The Random Graph." In The Mathematics of Paul Erdős, II (Ed. R. L. Graham and J. Nešetril). Berlin, Germany: Springer, pp. 333-351, 1997. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60406-5_32.Cameron, P. J. "The Random Graph Revisited." In European Congress of Mathematics, Vol. I (Barcelona, 2000) (Ed. C. Casacuberta, R. M. Miró-Roig, J. Verdera, and S. Xambó-Descamps). Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser, pp. 267-274, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8268-2_15.Rado, R. "Universal Graphs and Universal Functions." Acta Arith. 9, 331-340, 1964. https://doi.org/10.4064/aa-9-4-331-340.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Rado Graph." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RadoGraph.html

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