Constructing, sampling and counting graphical realizations of restricted degree sequences

Abstract

With the current burst of network theory (especially in connection with social and biological networks) there is a renewed interest on realizations of given degree sequences. In this paper we propose an essentially new degree sequence problem: we want to find graphical realizations of a given degree sequence on labeled vertices, where certain would-be edges are {\em forbidden}. Then we want to sample uniformly and efficiently all these possible realizations. (This problem can be considered as a special case of Tutte's $f$-factor problem, however it has a favorable sampling speed.) We solve this {\em restricted degree sequence} (or RDS for short) problem completely if the forbidden edges form a bipartite graph, which consist of the union of a (not necessarily maximal) 1-factor and a (possible empty) star. Then we show how one can sample the space of all realizations of these RDSs uniformly and efficiently when the degree sequence describes a {\em half-regular} bipartite graph. Our result contains, as special cases, the well-known result of Kannan, Tetali and Vempala on sampling regular bipartite graphs and a recent result of Greenhill on sampling regular directed graphs (so it also provides new proofs of them). The RDS problem descried above is self-reducible, therefore our {\em fully polynomial almost uniform sampler} (a.k.a. FPAUS) on the space of all realizations also provides a {\em fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme} (a.k.a. FPRAS) for approximate counting of all realizations.