1,263 research outputs found
Is the five-flow conjecture almost false?
The number of nowhere zero Z_Q flows on a graph G can be shown to be a
polynomial in Q, defining the flow polynomial \Phi_G(Q). According to Tutte's
five-flow conjecture, \Phi_G(5) > 0 for any bridgeless G.A conjecture by Welsh
that \Phi_G(Q) has no real roots for Q \in (4,\infty) was recently disproved by
Haggard, Pearce and Royle. These authors conjectured the absence of roots for Q
\in [5,\infty). We study the real roots of \Phi_G(Q) for a family of non-planar
cubic graphs known as generalised Petersen graphs G(m,k). We show that the
modified conjecture on real flow roots is also false, by exhibiting infinitely
many real flow roots Q>5 within the class G(nk,k). In particular, we compute
explicitly the flow polynomial of G(119,7), showing that it has real roots at
Q\approx 5.0000197675 and Q\approx 5.1653424423. We moreover prove that the
graph families G(6n,6) and G(7n,7) possess real flow roots that accumulate at
Q=5 as n\to\infty (in the latter case from above and below); and that
Q_c(7)\approx 5.2352605291 is an accumulation point of real zeros of the flow
polynomials for G(7n,7) as n\to\infty.Comment: 44 pages (LaTeX2e). Includes tex file, three sty files, and a
mathematica script polyG119_7.m. Many improvements from version 3, in
particular Sections 3 and 4 have been mostly re-writen, and Sections 7 and 8
have been eliminated. (This material can now be found in arXiv:1303.5210.)
Final version published in J. Combin. Theory
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 the imaginary parts of chromatic root
While much attention has been directed to the maximum modulus and maximum
real part of chromatic roots of graphs of order (that is, with
vertices), relatively little is known about the maximum imaginary part of such
graphs. We prove that the maximum imaginary part can grow linearly in the order
of the graph. We also show that for any fixed , almost every
random graph in the Erd\"os-R\'enyi model has a non-real root.Comment: 4 figure
Bounds on the Complex Zeros of (Di)Chromatic Polynomials and Potts-Model Partition Functions
I show that there exist universal constants such that, for
all loopless graphs of maximum degree , the zeros (real or complex)
of the chromatic polynomial lie in the disc . Furthermore,
. This result is a corollary of a more general result
on the zeros of the Potts-model partition function in the
complex antiferromagnetic regime . The proof is based on a
transformation of the Whitney-Tutte-Fortuin-Kasteleyn representation of to a polymer gas, followed by verification of the
Dobrushin-Koteck\'y-Preiss condition for nonvanishing of a polymer-model
partition function. I also show that, for all loopless graphs of
second-largest degree , the zeros of lie in the disc . Along the way, I give a simple proof of a generalized (multivariate)
Brown-Colbourn conjecture on the zeros of the reliability polynomial for the
special case of series-parallel graphs.Comment: 47 pages (LaTeX). Revised version contains slightly simplified proofs
of Propositions 4.2 and 4.5. Version 3 fixes a silly error in my proof of
Proposition 4.1, and adds related discussion. To appear in Combinatorics,
Probability & Computin
Phase diagram of the chromatic polynomial on a torus
We study the zero-temperature partition function of the Potts antiferromagnet
(i.e., the chromatic polynomial) on a torus using a transfer-matrix approach.
We consider square- and triangular-lattice strips with fixed width L, arbitrary
length N, and fully periodic boundary conditions. On the mathematical side, we
obtain exact expressions for the chromatic polynomial of widths L=5,6,7 for the
square and triangular lattices. On the physical side, we obtain the exact
``phase diagrams'' for these strips of width L and infinite length, and from
these results we extract useful information about the infinite-volume phase
diagram of this model: in particular, the number and position of the different
phases.Comment: 72 pages (LaTeX2e). Includes tex file, three sty files, and 26
Postscript figures. Also included are Mathematica files transfer6_sq.m and
transfer6_tri.m. Final version to appear in Nucl. Phys.
- …