Unified framework for asymptotically uniform iterative construction of generalised random graphs with local constraints

Abstract

We develop a unified framework for constructing combinatorial structures under local constraints. Our approach extends the configuration model for random graphs with a prescribed degree sequence, and covers many special cases, including bipartite graphs, directed graphs, oriented graphs, edge-colored (bipartite) graphs, and (directed) hypergraphs. By reformulating half-edge matching as an independent set problem in an auxiliary graph, we identify 2-uniformity, a property characterising when greedy sampling preserves asymptotic uniformity. We classify all 2-uniform graphs and show that only two classes, the configuration space and the bipartite configuration space, have unbounded independence number, enabling the asymptotic regime. Our main theorem then gives the asymptotic sampling distribution and enumeration formulae for configurations, with error terms of order $O(d_{\max}^4\log m/m+d_{\max}^2(\log m)^2/m)$ as the number of edges $m$ tends to infinity with maximum degree $d_{\max}=O(m^{1/4}/\log m)$. This settles the long-standing $O(m^{1/4-τ})$ bound (for some fixed $τ> 0$), making the critical exponent explicit. Furthermore, our theorem accommodates forbidden edges, provided that each vertex participates in at most $O(m^{1/4}/\log m)$ of them. In particular, this enables the sampling of edge-colored graphs with prescribed degree sequences for each color class by constructing the colored subgraphs one at a time.