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CPC
2007

Zero-Free Intervals for Flow Polynomials of Near-Cubic Graphs

13 years 3 months ago
Zero-Free Intervals for Flow Polynomials of Near-Cubic Graphs
Let P(G,t) and F(G,t) denote the chromatic and flow polynomials of a graph G. G.D. Birkhoff and D.C. Lewis showed that, if G is a plane near triangulation, then the only zeros of P(G,t) in (−∞,2] are 0, 1 and 2. We will extend their theorem by showing that a stonger result to the dual statement holds for both planar and non-planar graphs: if G is a bridgeless graph with at most one vertex of degree other than three, then the only zeros of F(G,t) in (−∞,α] are 1 and 2, where α ≈ 2.225... is the real zero in (2,3) of the polynomial t4 − 8t3 + 22t2 − 28t + 17. In addition we construct a sequence of ‘near-cubic’ graphs whose flow polynomials have zeros converging to α from above.
Bill Jackson
Added 13 Dec 2010
Updated 13 Dec 2010
Type Journal
Year 2007
Where CPC
Authors Bill Jackson
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