1,903 research outputs found
Chromatic roots and minor-closed families of graphs
Given a minor-closed class of graphs , what is the infimum of
the non-trivial roots of the chromatic polynomial of ? When
is the class of all graphs, the answer is known to be . We
answer this question exactly for three minor-closed classes of graphs.
Furthermore, we conjecture precisely when the value is larger than .Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
Chromatic roots are dense in the whole complex plane
I show that the zeros of the chromatic polynomials P_G(q) for the generalized
theta graphs \Theta^{(s,p)} are, taken together, dense in the whole complex
plane with the possible exception of the disc |q-1| < 1. The same holds for
their dichromatic polynomials (alias Tutte polynomials, alias Potts-model
partition functions) Z_G(q,v) outside the disc |q+v| < |v|. An immediate
corollary is that the chromatic zeros of not-necessarily-planar graphs are
dense in the whole complex plane. The main technical tool in the proof of these
results is the Beraha-Kahane-Weiss theorem on the limit sets of zeros for
certain sequences of analytic functions, for which I give a new and simpler
proof.Comment: LaTeX2e, 53 pages. Version 2 includes a new Appendix B. Version 3
adds a new Theorem 1.4 and a new Section 5, and makes several small
improvements. To appear in Combinatorics, Probability & Computin
On chromatic roots of large subdivisions of graphs
AbstractGiven a graph G, we derive an expression for the chromatic polynomials of the graphs resulting from subdividing some (or all) of its edges. For special subfamilies of these, we are able to describe the limits of their chromatic roots. We also prove that for any ε>0, all sufficiently large subdivisions of G have their chromatic roots in |z−1|<1+ε. A consequence of our work will be a characterization of the graphs having a subdivision whose chromatic polynomial has a root with negative real part
Triangle-free intersection graphs of line segments with large chromatic number
In the 1970s, Erdos asked whether the chromatic number of intersection graphs
of line segments in the plane is bounded by a function of their clique number.
We show the answer is no. Specifically, for each positive integer , we
construct a triangle-free family of line segments in the plane with chromatic
number greater than . Our construction disproves a conjecture of Scott that
graphs excluding induced subdivisions of any fixed graph have chromatic number
bounded by a function of their clique number.Comment: Small corrections, bibliography updat
Chromatic roots are dense in the whole complex plane
I show that the zeros of the chromatic polynomials P-G(q) for the generalized theta graphs Theta((s.p)) are taken together, dense in the whole complex plane with the possible exception of the disc \q - l\ < l. The same holds for their dichromatic polynomials (alias Tutte polynomials, alias Potts-model partition functions) Z(G)(q,upsilon) outside the disc \q + upsilon\ < \upsilon\. An immediate corollary is that the chromatic roots of not-necessarily-planar graphs are dense in the whole complex plane. The main technical tool in the proof of these results is the Beraha-Kahane-Weiss theorem oil the limit sets of zeros for certain sequences of analytic functions, for which I give a new and simpler proof
Generalized Kneser coloring theorems with combinatorial proofs
The Kneser conjecture (1955) was proved by Lov\'asz (1978) using the
Borsuk-Ulam theorem; all subsequent proofs, extensions and generalizations also
relied on Algebraic Topology results, namely the Borsuk-Ulam theorem and its
extensions. Only in 2000, Matou\v{s}ek provided the first combinatorial proof
of the Kneser conjecture.
Here we provide a hypergraph coloring theorem, with a combinatorial proof,
which has as special cases the Kneser conjecture as well as its extensions and
generalization by (hyper)graph coloring theorems of Dol'nikov,
Alon-Frankl-Lov\'asz, Sarkaria, and Kriz. We also give a combinatorial proof of
Schrijver's theorem.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
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