The zero forcing polynomial of a graph

Zero forcing is an iterative graph coloring process, where given a set of initially colored vertices, a colored vertex with a single uncolored neighbor causes that neighbor to become colored. A zero forcing set is a set of initially colored vertices which causes the entire graph to eventually become colored. In this paper, we study the counting problem associated with zero forcing. We introduce the zero forcing polynomial of a graph $G$ of order $n$ as the polynomial $\mathcal{Z}(G;x)=\sum_{i=1}^n z(G;i) x^i$, where $z(G;i)$ is the number of zero forcing sets of $G$ of size $i$. We characterize the extremal coefficients of $\mathcal{Z}(G;x)$, derive closed form expressions for the zero forcing polynomials of several families of graphs, and explore various structural properties of $\mathcal{Z}(G;x)$, including multiplicativity, unimodality, and uniqueness.Comment: 23 page

ON THE ROOTS OF EDGE COVER POLYNOMIALS OF GRAPHS

AbstractLet G be a simple graph of order n and size m. An edge covering of the graph G is a set of edges such that every vertex of the graph is incident to at least one edge of the set. Let e(G,k) be the number of edge covering sets of G of size k. The edge cover polynomial of G is the polynomial E(G,x)=∑k=1me(G,k)xk. In this paper, we obtain some results on the roots of the edge cover polynomials. We show that for every graph G with no isolated vertex, all the roots of E(G,x) are in the ball {z∈C:|z|<(2+3)21+3≃5.099}. We prove that if every block of the graph G is K2 or a cycle, then all real roots of E(G,x) are in the interval (−4,0]. We also show that for every tree T of order n we have ξR(K1,n−1)≤ξR(T)≤ξR(Pn), where −ξR(T) is the smallest real root of E(T,x), and Pn,K1,n−1 are the path and the star of order n, respectively

Some applications of Wagner's weighted subgraph counting polynomial

We use Wagner's weighted subgraph counting polynomial to prove that the partition function of the anti-ferromagnetic Ising model on line graphs is real rooted and to prove that roots of the edge cover polynomial have length at most $4$. We moreover discuss how our results relate to efficient algorithms for approximately computing evaluations of these polynomials

ON THE EDGE COVER POLYNOMIAL OF CERTAIN GRAPHS

Let $G$ be a simple graph of order $n$ and size $m$.The edge covering of $G$ is a set of edges such that every vertex of $G$ is incident to at least one edge of the set. The edge cover polynomial of $G$ is the polynomial$E(G,x)=sum_{i=rho(G)}^{m} e(G,i) x^{i}$,where $e(G,i)$ is the number of edge coverings of $G$ of size $i$, and$rho(G)$ is the edge covering number of $G$. In this paper we study theedge cover polynomials of cubic graphs of order $10$.We show that all cubic graphs of order $10$ (especially the Petersen graph) aredetermined uniquely by their edge cover polynomials