On Triangle Estimation using Tripartite Independent Set Queries

Abstract: Estimating the number of triangles in a graph is one of the most fundamental problems in sublinear algorithms. In this work, we provide an algorithm that approximately counts the number of triangles in a graph using only polylogarithmic queries when \emph{the number of triangles on any edge in the graph is polylogarithmically bounded}. Our query oracle {\em Tripartite Independent Set} (TIS) takes three disjoint sets of vertices $A$, $B$ and $C$ as inputs, and answers whether there exists a triangle having one endpoint in each of these three sets. Our query model generally belongs to the class of \emph{group queries} (Ron and Tsur, ACM ToCT, 2016; Dell and Lapinskas, STOC 2018) and in particular is inspired by the {\em Bipartite Independent Set} (BIS) query oracle of Beame {\em et al.} (ITCS 2018). We extend the algorithmic framework of Beame {\em et al.}, with \tis replacing \bis, for approximately counting triangles in graphs.