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A graph property is a class of finite graphs closed under isomorphism. Its labelled order-$n$ slice consists of members on vertex set $[n]$. Closure under taking arbitrary subgraphs and closure under taking only induced subgraphs lead respectively to subgraph-closed graph properties and hereditary graph properties.

In this enumeration problem, monotone means subgraph-closed graph property: both deleting vertices and deleting edges preserve membership. This is a decreasing convention, rather than the increasing-edge convention often used for random-graph thresholds. Assume first that the property is proper and has graphs of arbitrarily large orders. These are the usual nondegenerate hypotheses for the formula.

Put $r+1=\min \{\chi (F):F\notin \mathcal{Q}\}$. Every graph of chromatic number at most $r$ belongs to $\mathcal{Q}$. In particular, all subgraphs of a fixed balanced Turan graph $T_r(n)$ belong. Choosing each of its edges independently as present or absent givesFor the upper bound, fix $F\notin \mathcal{Q}$ with $\chi (F)=r+1$. Every member of $\mathcal{Q}$ is $F$-free, by closure under subgraphs.

We use the following standard regularity consequences. For every sufficiently small regularity error $\eta$, large minimum cluster count $q_0$, and fixed positive density cutoff $d$, the Szemerédi regularity lemma gives an equitable partition into $q_0\le q\le M$ clusters and an exceptional set of at most $\eta n$ vertices, with at most $\eta q^2$ irregular pairs. The graph embedding lemma for regular pairs says that a fixed graph with a prescribed proper colouring embeds into the corresponding clusters if all its required cross pairs are regular with density at least $d$, provided $\eta$ is sufficiently small relative to $d$ and the graph. Hence the reduced graph of a regularity partition, joining regular pairs of density at least $d$, is $K_{r+1}$-free: such a clique would embed $F$.

By the Turan theorem, this reduced graph has at most $(1-1/r)q^2/2$ edges. On its dense pairs allow arbitrary choices of original edges, giving at most $(1-1/r)n^2/2+O(n)$ free binary choices. All edges within clusters, touching the exceptional set, or lying in irregular pairs contribute $O((\eta +1/q_0)n^2)$ further choices. On each remaining pair there are at most $d$ times its number of possible edges. The elementary binary entropy estimatebounds the total sparse-pair contribution by $H_2(d)n^2/2$. The partition and pair classifications have at most $(M+1{)}^n{2}^{O(M^2)}$ descriptions, whose logarithm is $O(n)$ since $M$ is fixed. Choose $q_0$ large, then $d$ small, then $\eta$ sufficiently small; their total error can be made arbitrarily small. This provesIt is the enumeration of subgraph-closed graph properties.

For the hereditary extension, a hereditary graph property is closed under induced subgraphs. Define the clique-independent partition class $\mathcal{C}(a,b)$, for $0\le b\le a$, to consist of graphs partitionable into $a$ possibly empty classes, exactly $b$ designated as cliques and the other $a-b$ designated as independent sets; cross edges are unrestricted. Thus $a$ is the total number of classes. The colouring number of a hereditary graph property isUse value zero if this set is empty, and infinity for the class of all graphs.

$r(\mathcal{C}(a,b))=a$ for $a\ge 1$. The lower bound follows from the definition. For the upper bound, fix any $s\in \{0,\dots ,a+1\}$ and a balanced partition of a large $N$-vertex set into $a+1$ classes with $s$ clique classes. Independent choices of cross edges give $2^{(1-1/(a+1))N^2/2-O(1)}$ distinct graphs in $\mathcal{C}(a+1,s)$. On the other hand, all graphs in $\mathcal{C}(a,b)$ can be described by at most $a^N$ partitions, each with at most $(1-1/a)N^2/2$ unrestricted cross pairs. The former count is strictly larger for large $N$, so $\mathcal{C}(a+1,s)$ is not contained in $\mathcal{C}(a,b)$ for any $s$. A contained class with even more parts would contain one of these $(a+1)$-part classes by making unused parts empty, so it is also impossible.

The main changes for the hereditary graph enumeration theorem are as follows. The lower bound now uses a contained class $\mathcal{C}(r,b)$: within-class edges are fixed as complete or empty, and the balanced cross pairs still give $(1-1/r)n^2/2-O(1)$ free edge choices. For the upper bound, since no $\mathcal{C}(r+1,b)$ is wholly contained in $\mathcal{P}$, choose one forbidden induced graph $F_b\in \mathcal{C}(r+1,b)\setminus \mathcal{P}$ for each $b=0,\dots ,r+1$.

Use the standard induced regularity template lemma: for a fixed finite forbidden induced family and any error tolerance, a regularity refinement gives bounded-size templates with internal clique/independent types and cross pairs classified as sparse, almost complete, or intermediate. A clique of intermediate pairs on $a$ classes realizes every fixed induced pattern consistent with the internal types of those classes. This induced embedding conclusion uses a Ramsey refinement within clusters and regularity for both edges and nonedges; the total exceptional-pair cost can be made arbitrarily small. Applied to the $F_b$, a clique on $r+1$ intermediate classes would realize the forbidden $F_b$ whose number of clique types is $b$. Thus the graph of intermediate pairs is $K_{r+1}$-free. Only intermediate pairs contribute unrestricted binary choices; sparse pairs and the missing edges in almost-complete pairs each have the same entropy bound as before. The Turan theorem and the earlier counting argument now giveThis formula assumes $1\le r<\infty$. For the universal property the count is exactly $2^{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n}{2}\right)}$; a hereditary property of bounded order has $r=0$ and has no graphs on sufficiently large vertex sets, so the displayed expression with $1/r$ is not applicable.

For a proper subgraph-closed graph property, any contained $\mathcal{C}(a,b)$ must have $b=0$: if $b\ge 1$, it contains arbitrarily large complete graphs, and closure under subgraphs would force every graph into the property. Consequently its colouring number is exactly one less than the least chromatic number of an excluded graph. The excluded family of an intersection is the union of the two excluded families, whose minimum chromatic number is the smaller of their minima. Therefore $r(\mathcal{P}\cap \mathcal{Q})=\min (r(\mathcal{P}),r(\mathcal{Q}))$ for subgraph-closed properties, with the universal case treated by $r=\infty$.

For hereditary properties take $\mathcal{P}=\mathcal{C}(2,0)$ and $\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{C}(2,2)$, both of colouring number two. A graph in their intersection is both bipartite and a union of two cliques. A clique in a bipartite graph has at most two vertices; hence every such graph has at most four vertices. The intersection contains no complete clique-independent class on arbitrarily large orders, so $r(\mathcal{P}\cap \mathcal{Q})=0<2$. This also demonstrates why the bounded-order exception to the enumeration formula is necessary.