Shuffling the Deck: Invariant Theory and the Graph Reconstruction Conjecture

Abstract

The graph reconstruction conjecture asserts that every simple graph on at least three vertices is uniquely determined by its deck of vertex-deleted subgraphs. In this expository article we survey the conjecture and present an invariant-theoretic approach to studying it. The aim is to be able to show that polynomials that distinguish between decks also distinguish between original graphs, thus translating a graph-theoretic problem into an algebraic one.