PHOEG: an online tool for discovery and education in extremal graph theory

Abstract

Extremal Graph Theory heavily relies on exploring bounds and inequalities between graph invariants, a task complicated by the rapid combinatorial explosion of graphs. Various tools have been developed to assist researchers in navigating this complexity, yet they typically rely on heuristic, probabilistic, or non-exhaustive methods, trading exactness for scalability. PHOEG takes a different stance: rather than approximating, it commits to an exact approach. PHOEG is an interactive online tool (https://phoeg.umons.ac.be) designed to assist researchers and educators in graph theory. Building upon the exact geometrical approach of its predecessor, GraPHedron, PHOEG embeds graphs into a two-dimensional invariant space and computes their convex hull, where facets represent inequalities and vertices correspond to extremal graphs. PHOEG modernizes and expands this approach by offering a comprehensive web interface and API, backed by an extensive database of pairwise non-isomorphic graphs including all graphs up to order 10. Users can intuitively define invariant spaces by selecting a pair of invariants, apply constraints and colorations, visualize resulting convex polytopes, and seamlessly inspect the corresponding drawn graphs. In this paper, we detail the software architecture and new web-based features of PHOEG. Furthermore, we demonstrate its practical value in two primary contexts: in research, by illustrating its ability to quickly identify conjectures or counterexamples to conjectures, and in education, by detailing its integration into university-level coursework to foster student discovery of classical graph theory principles. Finally, this paper serves as a brief survey of the extremal results and conjectures established over the past two decades using this geometric approach.