Connectivity Graph-Codes

Abstract

The symmetric difference of two graphs $G_1,G_2$ on the same set of vertices $V$ is the graph on $V$ whose set of edges are all edges that belong to exactly one of the two graphs $G_1,G_2$. For a fixed graph $H$ call a collection ${\cal G}$ of spanning subgraphs of $H$ a connectivity code for $H$ if the symmetric difference of any two distinct subgraphs in ${\cal G}$ is a connected spanning subgraph of $H$. It is easy to see that the maximum possible cardinality of such a collection is at most $2^{k'(H)} \leq 2^{\delta(H)}$, where $k'(H)$ is the edge-connectivity of $H$ and $\delta(H)$ is its minimum degree. We show that equality holds for any $d$-regular (mild) expander, and observe that equality does not hold in several natural examples including any large cubic graph, the square of a long cycle and products of a small clique with a long cycle.