# Partial Recovery in the Graph Alignment Problem

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00533 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.00533/

## Key facts

- Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Jul 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Settling the Sharp Reconstruction Thresholds of Random Graph Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.00082/) (2021)
- [Random graph matching at Otter's threshold via counting chandeliers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.12313/) (2022)
- [Correlated Stochastic Block Models: Exact Graph Matching with Applications to Recovering Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06767/) (2021)
- [Testing network correlation efficiently via counting trees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.11816/) (2021)
- [Random Graph Matching in Geometric Models: the Case of Complete Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.10662/) (2022)
- [Impossibility of Partial Recovery in the Graph Alignment Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02685/) (2021)
- [Random Graph Matching with Improved Noise Robustness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.11783/) (2021)
- [Matching recovery threshold for correlated random graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.14650/) (2022)
- [Correlation detection in trees for planted graph alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.07623/) (2021)
- [Detection threshold for correlated ErdHos-R'enyi graphs via densest subgraphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14573/) (2022)
- [Statistical limits of correlation detection in trees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.13723/) (2022)
- [A polynomial-time iterative algorithm for random graph matching with non-vanishing correlation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00266/) (2023)
- [Exact Community Recovery in Correlated Stochastic Block Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15736/) (2022)
- [A polynomial time iterative algorithm for matching Gaussian matrices with non-vanishing correlation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.13677/) (2022)
- [Matching Correlated Inhomogeneous Random Graphs using the k-core Estimator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05407/) (2023)
- [The Umeyama algorithm for matching correlated Gaussian geometric models in the low-dimensional regime](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.15095/) (2024)
- [A computational transition for detecting correlated stochastic block models by low-degree polynomials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00966/) (2024)
- [Efficiently matching random inhomogeneous graphs via degree profiles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10441/) (2023)
- [Seeded graph matching for the correlated Gaussian Wigner model via the projected power method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.04099/) (2022)
- [Gaussian Database Alignment and Gaussian Planted Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.02459/) (2023)
- [Graph Matching via convex relaxation to the simplex](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.20609/) (2023)
- [Computational Lower Bounds for Correlated Random Graphs via Algorithmic Contiguity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09832/) (2025)
- [Covariance alignment: from maximum likelihood estimation to Gromov-Wasserstein](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13595/) (2023)
- [Information-Theoretic Thresholds for the Alignments of Partially Correlated Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.05428/) (2024)
- [Testing Dependency of Weighted Random Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14870/) (2024)
- [Robust Random Graph Matching in Dense Graphs via an Approximate Message Passing Type Algorithm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16457/) (2024)
- [Sharp Statistical Thresholds for Attributed Gaussian Graph Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.23305/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we consider the graph alignment problem, which is the problem of recovering, given two graphs, a one-to-one mapping between nodes that maximizes edge overlap. This problem can be viewed as a noisy version of the well-known graph isomorphism problem and appears in many applications, including social network deanonymization and cellular biology. Our focus here is on partial recovery, i.e., we look for a one-to-one mapping which is correct on a fraction of the nodes of the graph rather than on all of them, and we assume that the two input graphs to the problem are correlated ErdHos-R'enyi graphs of parameters (n,q,s). Our main contribution is then to give necessary and sufficient conditions on (n,q,s) under which partial recovery is possible with high probability as the number of nodes n goes to infinity. In particular, we show that it is possible to achieve partial recovery in the nqs=Theta(1) regime under certain additional assumptions.