The Graph Isomorphism Problem

Book excerpt: Recently, a variety ofresults on the complexitystatusofthegraph isomorphism problem has been obtained. These results belong to the so-called structural part of Complexity Theory. Our idea behind this book is to summarize such results which might otherwise not be easily accessible in the literature, and also, to give the reader an understanding of the aims and topics in Structural Complexity Theory, in general. The text is basically self contained; the only prerequisite for reading it is some elementary knowledge from Complexity Theory and Probability Theory. It can be used to teach a seminar or a monographic graduate course, but also parts of it (especially Chapter 1) provide a source of examples for a standard graduate course on Complexity Theory. Many people have helped us in different ways III the process of writing this book. Especially, we would like to thank V. Arvind, R.V. Book, E. May ordomo, and the referee who gave very constructive comments. This book project was especially made possible by a DAAD grant in the "Acciones In tegrada" program. The third author has been supported by the ESPRIT project ALCOM-II.