Edge inducibility via local directed graphs

Abstract: In this paper we introduce the edge inducibility problem. This is a common refinement of both the well known Kruskal--Katona theorem and the inducibility question introduced by Pippenger and Golumbic. Our first result is a hardness result. It shows that for any graph $G$, there is a related graph $G'$ whose edge inducibility determines the vertex inducibility of $G$. Moreover, we determine the edge inducibility of every $G$ with at most $4$ vertices, and make some progress on the cases $G=C_5,P_6$. Lastly, we extend our hardness result to graphs with a perfect matching that is the unique fractional perfect matching. This is done by introducing locally directed graphs, which are natural generalizations of directed graphs.