7,808 research outputs found
Simple recurrence formulas to count maps on orientable surfaces
We establish a simple recurrence formula for the number of rooted
orientable maps counted by edges and genus. We also give a weighted variant for
the generating polynomial where is a parameter taking the number
of faces of the map into account, or equivalently a simple recurrence formula
for the refined numbers that count maps by genus, vertices, and
faces. These formulas give by far the fastest known way of computing these
numbers, or the fixed-genus generating functions, especially for large . In
the very particular case of one-face maps, we recover the Harer-Zagier
recurrence formula.
Our main formula is a consequence of the KP equation for the generating
function of bipartite maps, coupled with a Tutte equation, and it was
apparently unnoticed before. It is similar in look to the one discovered by
Goulden and Jackson for triangulations, and indeed our method to go from the KP
equation to the recurrence formula can be seen as a combinatorial
simplification of Goulden and Jackson's approach (together with one additional
combinatorial trick). All these formulas have a very combinatorial flavour, but
finding a bijective interpretation is currently unsolved.Comment: Version 3: We changed the title once again. We also corrected some
misprints, gave another equivalent formulation of the main result in terms of
vertices and faces (Thm. 5), and added complements on bivariate generating
functions. Version 2: We extended the main result to include the ability to
track the number of faces. The title of the paper has been changed
accordingl
Narrow Proofs May Be Maximally Long
We prove that there are 3-CNF formulas over n variables that can be refuted
in resolution in width w but require resolution proofs of size n^Omega(w). This
shows that the simple counting argument that any formula refutable in width w
must have a proof in size n^O(w) is essentially tight. Moreover, our lower
bound generalizes to polynomial calculus resolution (PCR) and Sherali-Adams,
implying that the corresponding size upper bounds in terms of degree and rank
are tight as well. Our results do not extend all the way to Lasserre, however,
where the formulas we study have proofs of constant rank and size polynomial in
both n and w
Weighted interlace polynomials
The interlace polynomials introduced by Arratia, Bollobas and Sorkin extend
to invariants of graphs with vertex weights, and these weighted interlace
polynomials have several novel properties. One novel property is a version of
the fundamental three-term formula
q(G)=q(G-a)+q(G^{ab}-b)+((x-1)^{2}-1)q(G^{ab}-a-b) that lacks the last term. It
follows that interlace polynomial computations can be represented by binary
trees rather than mixed binary-ternary trees. Binary computation trees provide
a description of that is analogous to the activities description of the
Tutte polynomial. If is a tree or forest then these "algorithmic
activities" are associated with a certain kind of independent set in . Three
other novel properties are weighted pendant-twin reductions, which involve
removing certain kinds of vertices from a graph and adjusting the weights of
the remaining vertices in such a way that the interlace polynomials are
unchanged. These reductions allow for smaller computation trees as they
eliminate some branches. If a graph can be completely analyzed using
pendant-twin reductions then its interlace polynomial can be calculated in
polynomial time. An intuitively pleasing property is that graphs which can be
constructed through graph substitutions have vertex-weighted interlace
polynomials which can be obtained through algebraic substitutions.Comment: 11 pages (v1); 20 pages (v2); 27 pages (v3); 26 pages (v4). Further
changes may be made before publication in Combinatorics, Probability and
Computin
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