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Subgraph Isomorphism Problem


The subgraph isomorphism problem asks, for two finite graphs G and H, whether G contains a subgraph isomorphic to H. The problem is NP-complete; the clique decision problem is obtained by taking H to be a complete graph.

Unlike graph isomorphism, the subgraph problem allows graph vertices and graph edges of G to be discarded. The induced subgraph isomorphism problem additionally requires the copy of H to be a vertex-induced subgraph.


See also

Clique, Graph Isomorphism, Subgraph, Vertex-Induced Subgraph

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References

Cook, S. A. "The Complexity of Theorem-Proving Procedures." In Proceedings of the Third Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 151-158, 1971. https://doi.org/10.1145/800157.805047.Knuth, D. E. §7.2.2.3 in The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 4, Fascicle 7: Constraint Satisfaction. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, p. 30, 2025.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Subgraph Isomorphism Problem." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SubgraphIsomorphismProblem.html

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