Recently S. Chmutov introduced a generalization of the dual of a ribbon (or embedded) graph and proved a relation between Bollobas and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial of a ribbon graph and its generalized duals. Here I show that the duality relation satisfied by the ribbon graph polynomial can be understood in terms of knot theory and I give a simple proof of the relation via the homfly polynomial of a knot.
Bollobás and Riordan, in their paper "Metrics for sparse graphs," proposed a number of provocative conjectures extending central results of quasirandom graphs and graph limits to sparse graphs. We refute these conjectures by exhibiting a sequence of graphs with convergent normalized subgraph densities (and pseudorandom $C_4$-counts), but with no limit expressible as a kernel.
We extend the quasi-tree expansion of A. Champanerkar, I. Kofman, and N. Stoltzfus to not necessarily orientable ribbon graphs. We study the duality properties of the Bollobas-Riordan polynomial in terms of this expansion. As a corollary, we get a "connected state" expansion of the Kauffman bracket of virtual link diagrams. Our proofs use extensively the partial duality of S. Chmutov.
We establish a relation between the Bollobas-Riordan polynomial of a ribbon graph with the relative Tutte polynomial of a plane graph obtained from the ribbon graph using its projection to the plane in a nontrivial way. Also we give a duality formula for the relative Tutte polynomial of dual plane graphs and an expression of the Kauffman bracket of a virtual link as a specialization of the relative Tutte polynomial.
We define 2-decompositions of ribbon graphs, which generalise 2-sums and tensor products of graphs. We give formulae for the Bollobas-Riordan polynomial of such a 2-decomposition, and derive the classical Brylawski formula for the Tutte polynomial of a tensor product as a (very) special case. This study was initially motivated from knot theory, and we include an application of our formulae to mutation in knot diagrams.
We generalise the signed Bollobas-Riordan polynomial of S. Chmutov and I. Pak [Moscow Math. J. 7 (2007), no. 3, 409-418] to a multivariate signed polynomial Z and study its properties. We prove the invariance of Z under the recently defined partial duality of S. Chmutov [J. Combinatorial Theory, Ser. B, 99 (3): 617-638, 2009] and show that the duality transformation of the multivariate Tutte polynomial is a direct consequence of it.
We prove that the distribution of second degrees in the Bollobás--Riordan random graph model obeys the power law. We consider the model with parameter m = 1 (the number of edges equals the number of nodes).
In [A polynomial invariant of graphs on orientable surfaces, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III Ser. 83, No. 3, 513-531 (2001)] and [A polynomial of graphs on surfaces, Math. Ann. 323, 81-96 (2002)], Bollobas and Riordan generalized the classical Tutte polynomial to graphs cellularly embedded in surfaces, i.e. ribbon graphs, thus encoding topological information not captured by the classical Tutte polynomial. We provide a `recipe theorem' for their new topological Tutte polynomial, R(G). We then relate R(G) to the generalized transition polynomial Q(G) via a medial graph construction, thus extending …
We generalize the natural duality of graphs embedded into a surface to a duality with respect to a subset of edges. The dual graph might be embedded into a different surface. We prove a relation between the signed Bollobas-Riordan polynomials of dual graphs. This relation unifies various recent results expressing the Jones polynomial of links as specializations of the Bollobas-Riordan polynomials.
For a ribbon graph $G$ we consider an alternating link $L_G$ in the 3-manifold $G\times I$ represented as the product of the oriented surface $G$ and the unit interval $I$. We show that the Kauffman bracket $[L_G]$ is an evaluation of the recently introduced Bollobas-Riordan polynomial $R_G$. This results generalizes the celebrated relation between Kauffman bracket and Tutte polynomial of planar graphs.
For a graph G embedded in an orientable surface Σ, we consider associated links L(G) in the thickened surface Σ\times I. We relate the HOMFLY polynomial of L(G) to the recently defined Bollobas-Riordan polynomial of a ribbon graph. This generalizes celebrated results of Jaeger and Traldi. We use knot theory to prove results about graph polynomials and, after discussing questions of equivalence of the polynomials, we go on to use our formulae to prove a duality relation for the Bollobas-Riordan polynomial. We then consider the specialization to the Jones polynomial and recent results of Chmutov…
Oriented ribbon graphs (dessins d'enfant) are graphs embedded in oriented surfaces. The Bollobás-Riordan-Tutte polynomial is a three-variable polynomial that extends the Tutte polynomial to oriented ribbon graphs. A quasi-tree of a ribbon graph is a spanning subgraph with one face, which is described by an ordered chord diagram. We generalize the spanning tree expansion of the Tutte polynomial to a quasi-tree expansion of the Bollobás-Riordan-Tutte polynomial.
The Bollobás-Riordan polynomial [Math. Ann. 323, 81 (2002)] is a universal polynomial invariant for ribbon graphs. We find an extension of this polynomial for a particular family of combinatorial objects, called rank 3 weakly-colored stranded graphs. Stranded graphs arise in the study of tensor models for quantum gravity in physics, and generalize graphs and ribbon graphs. We present a seven-variable polynomial invariant of these graphs, which obeys a contraction/deletion recursion relation similar to that of the Tutte and Bollobás-Riordan polynomials. However, it is defined on a much broader …
We show that the Kauffman bracket $[L]$ of a checkerboard colorable virtual link $L$ is an evaluation of the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial $R_{G_L}$ of a ribbon graph associated with $L$. This result generalizes Thistlethwaite's celebrated theorem relating the Kauffman bracket with the Tutte polynomial of planar graphs.
Tensor models are used nowadays for implementing a fundamental theory of quantum gravity. We define here a polynomial $\mathcal T$ encoding the supplementary topological information. This polynomial is a natural generalization of the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial (used to characterize matrix graphs) and is different of the Gur\uau polynomial, (R. Gur\uau, "Topological Graph Polynomials in Colored Group Field Theory", Annales Henri Poincare {\bf 11}, 565-584 (2010)) defined for a particular class of tensor graphs, the colorable ones. The polynomial $\mathcal T$ is defined for both colorable and n…
Bollobás-Riordan random pairing model of a preferential attachment graph $G_m^n$ is studied. Let $\{W_j\}_{j\le mn+1}$ be the process of sums of independent exponentials with mean $1$. We prove that the degrees of the first $ν_m^n:=n^{\frac{m}{m+2}-ε}$ vertices are jointly, and uniformly, asymptotic to $\{2(mn)^{1/2}\bigl(W^{1/2}_{mj}-W^{1/2}_{m(j-1)}\bigr)\}_{j\in [t]}$, and that with high probability (whp) the smallest of these degrees is $n^{\frac{ε(m+2)}{2m}}$, at least. In contrast, the degrees of vertices below the top by any fraction of $n$ are whp of $O(\log n)$ order. Next we bound th…
The Bollobas-Riordan polynomial [Math. Ann. 323, 81 (2002)] extends the Tutte polynomial and its contraction/deletion rule for ordinary graphs to ribbon graphs. Given a ribbon graph $\cG$, the related polynomial should be computable from the knowledge of the terminal forms of $\cG$ namely specific induced graphs for which the contraction/deletion procedure becomes more involved. We consider some classes of terminal forms as rosette ribbon graphs with $N\ge 1$ petals and solve their associate Bollobas-Riordan polynomial. This work therefore enlarges the list of terminal forms for ribbon graphs …
We provide recipe theorems for the Bollobàs and Riordan polynomial $\mathcal{R}$ defined on classes of ribbon graphs with half-edges introduced in arXiv:1310.3708[math.GT]. We also define a generalized transition polynomial $Q$ on this new category of ribbon graphs and establish a relationship between $Q$ and $\mathcal{R}$.
We introduce an additional structure on ribbon graphs, arrow structure. We extend the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial to ribbon graph with this structure. The extended polynomial satisfies the contraction-deletion relations and naturally behaves with respect to the partial duality of ribbon graphs. We construct an arrow ribbon graph from a virtual link whose extended Bollobás-Riordan polynomial specializes to the arrow polynomial of the virtual link recently introduced by H.Dye and L.Kauffman. This result generalizes the classical Thistlethwaite theorem to the arrow polynomial of virtual links.
The Jones polynomial of an alternating link is a certain specialization of the Tutte polynomial of the (planar) checkerboard graph associated to an alternating projection of the link. The Bollobas-Riordan-Tutte polynomial generalizes the Tutte polynomial of planar graphs to graphs that are embedded in closed oriented surfaces of higher genus. In this paper we show that the Jones polynomial of any link can be obtained from the Bollobas-Riordan-Tutte polynomial of a certain oriented ribbon graph associated to a link projection. We give some applications of this approach.
The $2$-decomposition for ribbon graphs was introduced in [Annals of Combinatorics 15 (2011), pp 675-706]. We extend this result to half-edged ribbon graphs and to rank $D$-weakly colored graphs [SIGMA 12 (2016), 030], generalizing therefore the $2$-sums and tensor products of these graphs. Using this extension for the $2$-decompositions, we provide new expansion formulas for the Bollobás Riordan polynomial for half-edged ribbon graphs and also for the polynomial invariant for weakly colored stranded graphs.
We generalize theories of graph, matroid, and ribbon-graph activities to delta-matroids. As a result, we obtain an activities based feasible-set expansion for a transition polynomial of delta-matroids defined by Brijder and Hoogeboom. This result yields feasible-set expansions for the two-variable Bollobás-Riordan and interlace polynomials of a delta-matroid. In the former case, the expansion obtained directly generalizes the activities expansions of the Tutte polynomial of graphs and matroids.
In this paper, we analyze the Bollobás and Riordan polynomial $\mathcal{R}$ for ribbon graphs with half-ribbons introduced in [Combinatorics, Probability and Computing 31, 507-549, 2022]. We prove the universality property of a multivariate version of $\mathcal{R}$ whereas $\mathcal{R}$ itself turns out to be universal for a subclass of ribbon graphs with half-ribbons. We also show that $\mathcal{R}$ can be defined on some equivalence classes of ribbon graphs involving half-ribbons moves and that the new polynomial is universal on these classes.
The celebrated Thistlethwaite theorem relates the Jones polynomial of a link with the Tutte polynomial of the corresponding planar graph. We give a generalization of this theorem to virtual links. In this case, the graph will be embedded into a (higher genus) surface. For such graphs we use the generalization of the Tutte polynomial discovered by B.Bollobas and O.Riordan.
A k-valuation is a special type of edge k-colouring of a medial graph. Various graph polynomials, such as the Tutte, Penrose, Bollobás-Riordan, and transition polynomials, admit combinatorial interpretations and evaluations as weighted counts of k-valuations. In this paper, we consider a multivariate generating function of k-valuations. We show that this is a polynomial in k and hence defines a graph polynomial. We then show that the resulting polynomial has several desirable properties, including a recursive deletion-contraction-type definition, and specialises to the graph polynomials mentio…
Given a 4-regular graph $F$, we introduce a binary matroid $M_τ(F)$ on the set of transitions of $F$. Parametrized versions of the Tutte polynomial of $M_τ(F)$ yield several well-known graph and knot polynomials, including the Martin polynomial, the homflypt polynomial, the Kauffman polynomial and the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial.
We follow the example of Tutte in his construction of the dichromate of a graph (that is, the Tutte polynomial) as a unification of the chromatic polynomial and the flow polynomial in order to construct a new polynomial invariant of maps (graphs embedded in orientable surfaces). We call this the surface Tutte polynomial. The surface Tutte polynomial of a map contains the Las Vergnas polynomial, Bollobás-Riordan polynomial and Kruskhal polynomial as specializations. By construction, the surface Tutte polynomial includes among its evaluations the number of local tensions and local flows taking v…
We take an elementary and systematic approach to the problem of extending the Tutte polynomial to the setting of embedded graphs. Four notions of embedded graphs arise naturally when considering deletion and contraction operations on graphs on surfaces. We give a description of each class in terms of coloured ribbon graphs. We then identify a universal deletion-contraction invariant (i.e., a `Tutte polynomial') for each class. We relate these to graph polynomials in the literature, including the Bollobás--Riordan, Krushkal, and Las Vergnas polynomials, and give state-sum formulations, duality …
The tensor product $(G_1,G_2)$ of a graph $G_1$ and a pointed graph $G_2$ (containing one distinguished edge) is obtained by identifying each edge of $G_1$ with the distinguished edge of a separate copy of $G_2$, and then removing the identified edges. A formula to compute the Tutte polynomial of a tensor product of graphs was originally given by Brylawski. This formula was recently generalized to colored graphs and the generalized Tutte polynomial introduced by Bollobás and Riordan. In this paper we generalize the colored tensor product formula to relative Tutte polynomials of relative graphs…
The Tutte polynomial is a classical invariant, important in combinatorics and statistical mechanics. An essential feature of the Tutte polynomial is the duality for planar graphs G, $T_G(X,Y)\; =\; {T}_{G^*}(Y,X)$ where $G^*$ denotes the dual graph. We examine this property from the perspective of manifold topology, formulating polynomial invariants for higher-dimensional simplicial complexes. Polynomial duality for triangulations of a sphere follows as a consequence of Alexander duality. The main goal of this paper is to introduce and begin the study of a more general 4-variable polynomial fo…
We find new properties of the topological transition polynomial of embedded graphs, $Q(G)$. We use these properties to explain the striking similarities between certain evaluations of Bollobás and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial, $R(G)$, and the topological Penrose polynomial, $P(G)$. The general framework provided by $Q(G)$ also leads to several other combinatorial interpretations these polynomials. In particular, we express $P(G)$, $R(G)$, and the Tutte polynomial, $T(G)$, as sums of chromatic polynomials of graphs derived from $G$; show that these polynomials count $k$-valuations of media…
The vertex-nullity interlace polynomial of a graph, described by Arratia, Bollobás and Sorkin as evolving from questions of DNA sequencing, and extended to a two-variable interlace polynomial by the same authors, evokes many open questions. These include relations between the interlace polynomial and the Tutte polynomial and the computational complexity of the vertex-nullity interlace polynomial. Here, we prove that the one-variable vertex-nullity interlace polynomial is in general #P-hard to compute. We also show a relation between the two-variable interlace polynomial and the topological Tut…
The Las Vergnas polynomial is an extension of the Tutte polynomial to cellularly embedded graphs. It was introduced by Michel Las Vergnas in 1978 as special case of his Tutte polynomial of a morphism of matroids. While the general Tutte polynomial of a morphism of matroids has a complete set of deletion-contraction relations, its specialisation to cellularly embedded graphs does not. Here we extend the Las Vergnas polynomial to graphs in pseudo-surfaces. We show that in this setting we can define deletion and contraction for embedded graphs consistently with the deletion and contraction of the…
By considering Tutte polynomials of Hopf algebras, we show how a Tutte polynomial can be canonically associated with combinatorial objects that have some notions of deletion and contraction. We show that several graph polynomials from the literature arise from this framework. These polynomials include the classical Tutte polynomial of graphs and matroids, Las Vergnas' Tutte polynomial of the morphism of matroids and his Tutte polynomial for embedded graphs, Bollobas and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial, the Krushkal polynomial, and the Penrose polynomial. We show that our Tutte polynomials of…
Polynomials on stranded graphs are higher dimensional generalization of Tutte and Bollobás-Riordan polynomials [Math. Ann. 323 (2002), 81-96]. Here, we deepen the analysis of the polynomial invariant defined on rank 3 weakly-colored stranded graphs introduced in arXiv:1301.1987. We successfully find in dimension $D\geq3$ a modified Euler characteristic with $D-2$ parameters. Using this modified invariant, we extend the rank 3 weakly-colored graph polynomial, and its main properties, on rank 4 and then on arbitrary rank $D$ weakly-colored stranded graphs.
Matroid theory is often thought of as a generalization of graph theory. In this paper we propose an analogous correspondence between embedded graphs and delta-matroids. We show that delta-matroids arise as the natural extension of graphic matroids to the setting of embedded graphs. We show that various basic ribbon graph operations and concepts have delta-matroid analogues, and illustrate how the connections between embedded graphs and delta-matroids can be exploited. Also, in direct analogy with the fact that The Tutte polynomial is matroidal, we show that several polynomials of embedded grap…
Motivated by Khovanov homology and relations between the Jones polynomial and graph polynomials, we construct a homology theory for embedded graphs from which the chromatic polynomial can be recovered as the Euler characteristic. For plane graphs, we show that our chromatic homology can be recovered from the Khovanov homology of an associated link. We apply this connection with Khovanov homology to show that the torsion-free part of our chromatic homology is independent of the choice of planar embedding of a graph. We extend our construction and categorify the Bollobas-Riordan polynomial (a ge…
It is well a known and fundamental result that the Jones polynomial can be expressed as Potts and vertex partition functions of signed plane graphs. Here we consider constructions of the Jones polynomial as state models of unsigned graphs and show that the Jones polynomial of any link can be expressed as a vertex model of an unsigned embedded graph. In the process of deriving this result, we show that for every diagram of a link in the 3-sphere there exists a diagram of an alternating link in a thickened surface (and an alternating virtual link) with the same Kauffman bracket. We also recover …
We look for graph polynomials which satisfy recurrence relations on three kinds of edge elimination: edge deletion, edge contraction and deletion of edges together with their end points. Like in the case of deletion and contraction only (W. Tutte, 1954), it turns out that there is a most general polynomial satisfying such recurrence relations, which we call $ξ(G,x,y,z)$. We show that the new polynomial simultaneously generalizes the Tutte polynomial, the matching polynomial, and the recent generalization of the chromatic polynomial proposed by K.Dohmen, A.Pönitz and P.Tittman (2003), including…
We introduce a polynomial invariant of graphs on surfaces, $P_G$, generalizing the classical Tutte polynomial. Topological duality on surfaces gives rise to a natural duality result for $P_G$, analogous to the duality for the Tutte polynomial of planar graphs. This property is important from the perspective of statistical mechanics, where the Tutte polynomial is known as the partition function of the Potts model. For ribbon graphs, $P_G$ specializes to the well-known Bollobas-Riordan polynomial, and in fact the two polynomials carry equivalent information in this context. Duality is also estab…
It is well-known that the Jones polynomial of an alternating knot is closely related to the Tutte polynomial of a special graph obtained from a regular projection of the knot. Relying on the results of Bollobás and Riordan, we introduce a generalization of Kauffman's Tutte polynomial of signed graphs for which describing the effect of taking a signed tensor product of signed graphs is very simple. We show that this Tutte polynomial of a signed tensor product of signed graphs may be expressed in terms of the Tutte polynomials of the original signed graphs by using a simple substitution rule. Ou…
In this short survey we present the appearance of some combinatorial notions in quantum field theory. We first focus on topological graph polynomials (the Tutte polynomial and its multivariate version) and their relation with the parametric representation of the commutative $Φ^4$ field theory. We then generalize this to ribbon graphs and present the relation of the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial with the parametric representation of some $Φ^4$ field theory on the non-commutative Moyal space. We also review the rôle played by the Connes-Kreimer Hopf algebra as the combinatorial backbone of the ren…
