On the unimodality of independence polynomials of some graphs

In this paper we study unimodality problems for the independence polynomial of a graph, including unimodality, log-concavity and reality of zeros. We establish recurrence relations and give factorizations of independence polynomials for certain classes of graphs. As applications we settle some unimodality conjectures and problems.Comment: 17 pages, to appear in European Journal of Combinatoric

Two-Loop Superstrings in Hyperelliptic Language III: the Four-Particle Amplitude

We compute explicitly the four-particle amplitude in superstring theories by using the hyperelliptic language and the newly obtained chiral measure of D'Hoker and Phong. Although the algebra of the intermediate steps is a little bit involved, we obtain a quite simple expression for the four-particle amplitude. As expected, the integrand is independent of all the insertion points. As an application of the obtained result, we show that the perturbative correction to the $R^4$ term in type II superstring theories is vanishing point-wise in (even) moduli space at two loops.Comment: v1, LaTex file, 33 pages; v2, 34 pages, add references and minor correction