Efficient Testing of Large Graphs

be a property of graphs. An \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}\end{document}-test for P is a randomized algorithm which, given the ability to make queries whether a desired pair of vertices of an input graph G with n vertices are adjacent or not, distinguishes, with high probability, between the case of G satisfying P and the case that it has to be modified by adding and removing more than \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}\end{document} edges to make it satisfy P. The property P is called testable, if for every \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}\end{document} there exists an \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}\end{document}-test for P whose total number of queries is independent of the size of the input graph. Goldreich, Goldwasser and Ron [8] showed that certain individual graph properties, like k-colorability, admit an \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}\end{document}-test. In this paper we make a first step towards a complete logical characterization of all testable graph properties, and show that properties describable by a very general type of coloring problem are testable. We use this theorem to prove that first order graph properties not containing a quantifier alternation of type ``\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}\end{document}'' are always testable, while we show that some properties containing this alternation are not.