In the case of simple graphs (without multiple edges or loops), a map between graphs and can be uniquely defined by specifying where the vertices of go. If and then this is a list of length consisting of elements taken from the vertices in .

Let’s look at an example.

Example: Let denote the cube graph in and let denote the “cube graph” (actually the unit square) in .

This is the 3-diml cube graph in Sagemath

The cycle graph on 4 vertices (also called the cube graph in 2-dims, created using Sagemath.

We define a map by

f = [[‘000’, ‘001’, ‘010’, ‘011’, ‘100’, ‘101’, ‘110’, ‘111’], [“00”, “00”, “01”, “01”, “10”, “10”, “11”, “11”]].

Definition: For any vertex of a graph , we define the star to be a subgraph of induced by the edges incident to . A map is called harmonic if for all vertices , the quantity

is independent of the choice of edge in .

 
Here is Python code in Sagemath which tests if a function is harmonic:

def is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f, verbose = False):
    """
    Returns True if f defines a graph-theoretic mapping
    from Gamma2 to Gamma1 that is harmonic, and False otherwise. 

    Suppose Gamma2 has n vertices. A morphism 
              f: Gamma2 -> Gamma1
    is represented by a pair of lists [L2, L1],
    where L2 is the list of all n vertices of Gamma2,
    and L1 is the list of length n of the vertices
    in Gamma1 that form the corresponding image under
    the map f.

    EXAMPLES:
        sage: Gamma2 = graphs.CubeGraph(2)
        sage: Gamma1 = Gamma2.subgraph(vertices = ['00', '01'], edges = [('00', '01')])
        sage: f = [['00', '01', '10', '11'], ['00', '01', '00', '01']]
        sage: is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f)
        True
        sage: Gamma2 = graphs.CubeGraph(3)
        sage: Gamma1 = graphs.TetrahedralGraph()
        sage: f = [['000', '001', '010', '011', '100', '101', '110', '111'], [0, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 0]]
        sage: is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f)
        True
        sage: Gamma2 = graphs.CubeGraph(3)
        sage: Gamma1 = graphs.CubeGraph(2)
        sage: f = [['000', '001', '010', '011', '100', '101', '110', '111'], ["00", "00", "01", "01", "10", "10", "11", "11"]]
        sage: is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f)
        True
        sage: is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f, verbose=True)
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['000', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['001', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['010', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['011', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['100', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['101', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['110', [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] passes the check: ['111', [1, 1]]
        True
        sage: Gamma2 = graphs.TetrahedralGraph()
        sage: Gamma1 = graphs.CycleGraph(3)
        sage: f = [[0,1,2,3],[0,1,2,0]]
        sage: is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f)
        False
        sage: is_harmonic_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f, verbose=True)
        This [, ]] passes the check: [0, [1, 1]]
        This [, ]] fails the check: [1, [2, 1]]
        This [, ]] fails the check: [2, [2, 1]]
        False

    """
    V1 = Gamma1.vertices()
    n1 = len(V1)
    V2 = Gamma2.vertices()
    n2 = len(V2)
    E1 = Gamma1.edges()
    m1 = len(E1)
    E2 = Gamma2.edges()
    m2 = len(E2)
    edges_in_common = []
    for v2 in V2:
        w = image_of_vertex_under_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f, v2)
        str1 = star_subgraph(Gamma1, w)
        Ew = str1.edges()
        str2 = star_subgraph(Gamma2, v2)
        Ev2 = str2.edges()
        sizes = []
        for e in Ew:
            finv_e = preimage_of_edge_under_graph_morphism(Gamma1, Gamma2, f, e)
            L = [x for x in finv_e if x in Ev2]
            sizes.append(len(L))
            #print v2,e,L
        edges_in_common.append([v2, sizes])
    ans = True
    for x in edges_in_common:
        sizes = x[1]
        S = Set(sizes)
        if S.cardinality()>1:
            ans = False
            if verbose and ans==False:
                print "This [, ]] fails the check:", x
        if verbose and ans==True:
            print "This [, ]] passes the check:", x
    return ans
            

For further details (e.g., code to

star_subgraph

, etc), just ask in the comments.