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Main Author: Velilla, Eduar Castrillo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21557
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author Velilla, Eduar Castrillo
author_facet Velilla, Eduar Castrillo
contents DRESS is a deterministic, parameter-free framework that iteratively refines the structural similarity of edges in a graph to produce a canonical fingerprint: a real-valued edge vector, obtained by converging a non-linear dynamical system to its unique fixed point. $Δ^k$-DRESS extends the framework by running DRESS on every $k$-vertex-deleted subgraph of $G$; it was introduced and empirically evaluated in the companion paper, where the CFI staircase showed that $Δ^k$-DRESS matches $(k{+}2)$-WL for $k = 0, 1, 2, 3$. This paper provides the theoretical justification. The main contributions are: (i) an unconditional proof that $Δ^k$-DRESS distinguishes every CFI$(K_{k+3})$ pair for all $k \geq 0$ (CFI Staircase Theorem), established via a new CFI Deck Separation theorem and the Virtual Pebble Lemma; and (ii) a conditional proof that $Δ^k$-DRESS $\geq$ $(k{+}2)$-WL for all graphs and all $k \geq 0$, assuming a single structural conjecture about the WL hierarchy (WL-Deck Separation).
format Preprint
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DRESS and the WL Hierarchy: Climbing One Deletion at a Time
Velilla, Eduar Castrillo
Data Structures and Algorithms
Discrete Mathematics
DRESS is a deterministic, parameter-free framework that iteratively refines the structural similarity of edges in a graph to produce a canonical fingerprint: a real-valued edge vector, obtained by converging a non-linear dynamical system to its unique fixed point. $Δ^k$-DRESS extends the framework by running DRESS on every $k$-vertex-deleted subgraph of $G$; it was introduced and empirically evaluated in the companion paper, where the CFI staircase showed that $Δ^k$-DRESS matches $(k{+}2)$-WL for $k = 0, 1, 2, 3$. This paper provides the theoretical justification. The main contributions are: (i) an unconditional proof that $Δ^k$-DRESS distinguishes every CFI$(K_{k+3})$ pair for all $k \geq 0$ (CFI Staircase Theorem), established via a new CFI Deck Separation theorem and the Virtual Pebble Lemma; and (ii) a conditional proof that $Δ^k$-DRESS $\geq$ $(k{+}2)$-WL for all graphs and all $k \geq 0$, assuming a single structural conjecture about the WL hierarchy (WL-Deck Separation).
title DRESS and the WL Hierarchy: Climbing One Deletion at a Time
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
Discrete Mathematics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21557