379 research outputs found
Some inequalities for the Tutte polynomial
We prove that the Tutte polynomial of a coloopless paving matroid is convex
along the portions of the line segments x+y=p lying in the positive quadrant.
Every coloopless paving matroids is in the class of matroids which contain two
disjoint bases or whose ground set is the union of two bases of M*. For this
latter class we give a proof that T_M(a,a) <= max {T_M(2a,0), T_M(0,2a)} for a
>= 2. We conjecture that T_M(1,1) <= max {T_M(2,0), T_M(0,2)} for the same
class of matroids. We also prove this conjecture for some families of graphs
and matroids.Comment: 17 page
Decision trees, monotone functions, and semimatroids
We define decision trees for monotone functions on a simplicial complex. We
define homology decidability of monotone functions, and show that various
monotone functions related to semimatroids are homology decidable. Homology
decidability is a generalization of semi-nonevasiveness, a notion due to
Jonsson. The motivating example is the complex of bipartite graphs, whose Betti
numbers are unknown in general.
We show that these monotone functions have optimum decision trees, from which
we can compute relative Betti numbers of related pairs of simplicial complexes.
Moreover, these relative Betti numbers are coefficients of evaluations of the
Tutte polynomial, and every semimatroid collapses onto its broken circuit
complex.Comment: 16 page
Zero-free regions for multivariate Tutte polynomials (alias Potts-model partition functions) of graphs and matroids
The chromatic polynomial P_G(q) of a loopless graph G is known to be nonzero
(with explicitly known sign) on the intervals (-\infty,0), (0,1) and (1,32/27].
Analogous theorems hold for the flow polynomial of bridgeless graphs and for
the characteristic polynomial of loopless matroids. Here we exhibit all these
results as special cases of more general theorems on real zero-free regions of
the multivariate Tutte polynomial Z_G(q,v). The proofs are quite simple, and
employ deletion-contraction together with parallel and series reduction. In
particular, they shed light on the origin of the curious number 32/27.Comment: LaTeX2e, 49 pages, includes 5 Postscript figure
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