On the optimality of the Arf invariant formula for graph polynomials

We prove optimality of the Arf invariant formula for the generating function of even subgraphs, or, equivalently, the Ising partition function, of a graph.Comment: Advances in Mathematics, 201

Permanents, Pfaffian orientations, and even directed circuits

Given a 0-1 square matrix A, when can some of the 1's be changed to -1's in such a way that the permanent of A equals the determinant of the modified matrix? When does a real square matrix have the property that every real matrix with the same sign pattern (that is, the corresponding entries either have the same sign or are both zero) is nonsingular? When is a hypergraph with n vertices and n hyperedges minimally nonbipartite? When does a bipartite graph have a "Pfaffian orientation"? Given a digraph, does it have no directed circuit of even length? Given a digraph, does it have a subdivision with no even directed circuit? It is known that all of the above problems are equivalent. We prove a structural characterization of the feasible instances, which implies a polynomial-time algorithm to solve all of the above problems. The structural characterization says, roughly speaking, that a bipartite graph has a Pfaffian orientation if and only if it can be obtained by piecing together (in a specified way) planar bipartite graphs and one sporadic nonplanar bipartite graph.Comment: 47 pages, published versio

Discrete Dirac Operators, Critical Embeddings and Ihara-Selberg Functions

The aim of the paper is to formulate a discrete analogue of the claim made by Alvarez-Gaume et al., realizing the partition function of the free fermion on a closed Riemann surface of genus g as a linear combination of 2^{2g} Pfaffians of Dirac operators. Let G=(V,E) be a finite graph embedded in a closed Riemann surface X of genus g, x_e the collection of independent variables associated with each edge e of G (collected in one vector variable x) and S the set of all 2^{2g} Spin-structures on X. We introduce 2^{2g} rotations rot_s and (2|E| times 2|E|) matrices D(s)(x), s in S, of the transitions between the oriented edges of G determined by rotations rot_s. We show that the generating function for the even subsets of edges of G, i.e., the Ising partition function, is a linear combination of the square roots of 2^{2g} Ihara-Selberg functions I(D(s)(x)) also called Feynman functions. By a result of Foata--Zeilberger holds I(D(s)(x))= det(I-D'(s)(x)), where D'(s)(x) is obtained from D(s)(x) by replacing some entries by 0. Thus each Feynman function is computable in polynomial time. We suggest that in the case of critical embedding of a bipartite graph G, the Feynman functions provide suitable discrete analogues for the Pfaffians of discrete Dirac operators

A Pfaffian formula for monomer-dimer partition functions

We consider the monomer-dimer partition function on arbitrary finite planar graphs and arbitrary monomer and dimer weights, with the restriction that the only non-zero monomer weights are those on the boundary. We prove a Pfaffian formula for the corresponding partition function. As a consequence of this result, multipoint boundary monomer correlation functions at close packing are shown to satisfy fermionic statistics. Our proof is based on the celebrated Kasteleyn theorem, combined with a theorem on Pfaffians proved by one of the authors, and a careful labeling and directing procedure of the vertices and edges of the graph.Comment: Added referenc