We define a q-chromatic function on graphs, list some of its properties and provide some formulas in the class of general chordal graphs. Then we relate the q-chromatic function to the colored Jones function of knots. This leads to a curious expression of the colored Jones function of a knot diagram as a 'defected chromatic operator' applied to a power series whose coefficients are linear combinations of chord diagrams constructed from 'flows' on the reduced knot diagram.
A famous and wide-open problem, going back to at least the early 1970's, concerns the classification of chromatic polynomials of graphs. Toward this classification problem, one may ask for necessary inequalities among the coefficients of a chromatic polynomial, and we contribute such inequalities when a chromatic polynomial $χ_G(n) = χ^*_0 \binom {n+d} d + χ^*_1 \binom {n+d-1} d + \dots + χ^*_d \binom n d$ is written in terms of a binomial-coefficient basis. For example, we show that $χ^*_{ j } \le χ^*_{ d-j }$, for $0 \le j \le \frac{ d }{ 2 }$. Similar results hold for flow and tension polyn…
A clique colouring of a graph is a colouring of the vertices so that no maximal clique is monochromatic (ignoring isolated vertices). The smallest number of colours in such a colouring is the clique chromatic number. In this paper, we study the asymptotic behaviour of the clique chromatic number of the random graph G(n,p) for a wide range of edge-probabilities p=p(n). We see that the typical clique chromatic number, as a function of the average degree, forms an intriguing step function.
Some important properties of the chromatic polynomial also hold for any polynomial set map satisfying p_S(x+y)=\sum_{T\uplus U=S}p_T(x)p_U(y). Using umbral calculus, we give a formula for the expansion of such a set map in terms of any polynomial sequence of binomial type. This leads to some new expansions of the chromatic polynomial. We also describe a set map generalization of Abel polynomials.
For each graph we construct graded cohomology groups whose graded Euler characteristic is the chromatic polynomial of the graph. We show the cohomology groups satisfy a long exact sequence which corresponds to the well-known deletion-contraction rule. This work is motivated by Khovanov's work on categorification of the Jones polynomial of knots.
In this paper, we show that the solution to a large class of "tiling" problems is given by a polynomial sequence of binomial type. More specifically, we show that the number of ways to place a fixed set of polyominos on an $n\times n$ toroidal chessboard such that no two polyominos overlap is eventually a polynomial in $n$, and that certain sets of these polynomials satisfy binomial-type recurrences. We exhibit generalizations of this theorem to higher dimensions and other lattices. Finally, we apply the techniques developed in this paper to resolve an open question about the structure of coef…
The clique chromatic number of a graph is the minimum number of colors required to assign to its vertex set so that no inclusion maximal clique is monochromatic. McDiarmid, Mitsche and Prałat proved that the clique chromatic number of the binomial random graph $G\left(n,\frac{1}{2}\right) $ is at most $\left(\frac{1}{2}+o(1)\right)\log_2n$ with high probability. Alon and Krivelevich showed that it is greater than $\frac{1}{2000}\log_2n$ with high probability and suggested that the right constant in front of the logarithm is $\frac{1}{2}.$ We prove their conjecture and, beyond that, obtain a ti…
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…
We prove that a formula predicted on the basis of non-rigorous physics arguments [Zdeborova and Krzakala: Phys. Rev. E (2007)] provides a lower bound on the chromatic number of sparse random graphs. The proof is based on the interpolation method from mathematical physics. In the case of random regular graphs the lower bound can be expressed algebraically, while in the case of the binomial random we obtain a variational formula. As an application we calculate improved explicit lower bounds on the chromatic number of random graphs for small (average) degrees. Additionally, show how asymptotic fo…
The clique chromatic number of a graph G=(V,E) is the minimum number of colors in a vertex coloring so that no maximal (with respect to containment) clique is monochromatic. We prove that the clique chromatic number of the binomial random graph G=G(n,1/2) is, with high probability, Ω(log n). This settles a problem of McDiarmid, Mitsche and Pralat who proved that it is O(log n) with high probability.
This paper introduces a conceptual framework, in the context of quantum topology and the algebras underlying it, for analyzing relations obeyed by the chromatic polynomial χ(Q) of planar graphs. Using it we give new proofs and substantially extend a number of classical results concerning the combinatorics of the chromatic polynomial. In particular, we show that Tutte's golden identity is a consequence of level-rank duality for SO(N) topological quantum field theories and Birman-Murakami-Wenzl algebras. This identity is a remarkable feature of the chromatic polynomial relating χ({ϕ+2}) for any …
In this work we show that with high probability the chromatic number of a graph sampled from the random regular graph model $\Gnd$ for $d=o(n^{1/5})$ is concentrated in two consecutive values, thus extending a previous result of Achlioptas and Moore. This concentration phenomena is very similar to that of the binomial random graph model $\Gnp$ with $p=\frac{d}{n}$. Our proof is largely based on ideas of Alon and Krivelevich who proved this two-point concentration result for $\Gnp$ for $p=n^{-δ}$ where $δ>1/2$. The main tool used to derive such a result is a careful analysis of the distribution…
We utilize relations between Khovanov and chromatic graph homology to determine extreme Khovanov groups and corresponding coefficients of the Jones polynomial. The extent to which chromatic homology and chromatic polynomial can be used to compute integral Khovanov homology of a link depends on the maximal girth of its all-positive graphs. In this paper we also define the girth of a link, discuss relations to other knot invariants, and the possible values for girth. Analyzing girth leads to a description of possible all-A state graphs of any given link; e.g., if a link has a diagram such that t…
In this paper, the on-line list colouring of binomial random graphs G(n,p) is studied. We show that the on-line choice number of G(n,p) is asymptotically almost surely asymptotic to the chromatic number of G(n,p), provided that the average degree d=p(n-1) tends to infinity faster than (log log n)^1/3(log n)^2n^(2/3). For sparser graphs, we are slightly less successful; we show that if d>(log n)^(2+epsilon) for some epsilon>0, then the on-line choice number is larger than the chromatic number by at most a multiplicative factor of C, where C in [2,4], depending on the range of d. Also, for d=O(1…
The chromatic number $χ(G)$ of a graph $G$, that is, the smallest number of colors required to color the vertices of $G$ so that no two adjacent vertices are assigned the same color, is a classic and extensively studied parameter. Here we consider the case where $G$ is a random block graph, also known as the stochastic block model. The vertex set is partitioned into $k\in\mathbb{N}$ parts $V_1, \dotsc, V_k$, and for each $1 \le i\le j\le k$, two vertices $u \in V_i, v\in V_j$ are connected by an edge with some probability $p_{ij} \in (0,1)$ independently. Our main result pins down the typical …
Kim and Vu made the following conjecture (\textit{Advances in Mathematics}, 2004): if $d\gg \log n$, then the random $d$-regular graph $\mathcal G(n,d)$ can asymptotically almost surely be "sandwiched" between $\mathcal G(n,p_1)$ and $\mathcal G(n,p_2)$ where $p_1$ and $p_2$ are both $(1+o(1))d/n$. They proved this conjecture for $\log n\ll d\le n^{1/3-o(1)}$, with a defect in the sandwiching: $\mathcal G(n,d)$ contains $\mathcal G(n,p_1)$ perfectly, but is not completely contained in $\mathcal G(n,p_2)$. Recently, the embedding $\mathcal G(n,p_1) \subseteq \mathcal G(n,d)$ was improved by Dud…
We introduce a notion of $q$-deformed rational numbers and $q$-deformed continued fractions. A $q$-deformed rational is encoded by a triangulation of a polygon and can be computed recursively. The recursive formula is analogous to the $q$-deformed Pascal identitiy for the Gaussian binomial coefficients, but the Pascal triangle is replaced by the Farey graph. The coefficients of the polynomials defining the $q$-rational count quiver subrepresentations of the maximal indecomposable representation of the graph dual to the triangulation. Several other properties, such as total positivity propertie…
We consider vertex partitions of the binomial random graph $G_{n,p}$. For $np\to\infty$, we observe the following phenomenon: in any partition into asymptotically fewer than $χ(G_{n,p})$ parts, i.e. $o(np/\log np)$ parts, one part must induce a connected component of order at least roughly the average part size. Stated another way, we consider the $t$-component chromatic number, the smallest number of colours needed in a colouring of the vertices for which no monochromatic component has more than $t$ vertices. As long as $np \to \infty$, there is a threshold for $t$ around $Θ(p^{-1}\log np)$: …
Let $t_{i,j}$ be the coefficient of $x^iy^j$ in the Tutte polynomial $T(G;x,y)$ of a connected bridgeless and loopless graph $G$ with order $n$ and size $m$. It is trivial that $t_{0,m-n+1}=1$ and $t_{n-1,0}=1$. In this paper, we obtain expressions of another eight extreme coefficients $t_{i,j}$'s with $(i,j)=(0,m-n)$,$(0,m-n-1)$,$(n-2,0)$,$(n-3,0)$,$(1,m-n)$,$(1,m-n-1)$,$(n-2,1)$ and $(n-3,1)$ in terms of small substructures of $G$. Among them, the former four can be obtained by using coefficients of the highest, second highest and third highest terms of chromatic or flow polynomials, and vic…
The deletion--contraction algorithm is perhaps the most popular method for computing a host of fundamental graph invariants such as the chromatic, flow, and reliability polynomials in graph theory, the Jones polynomial of an alternating link in knot theory, and the partition functions of the models of Ising, Potts, and Fortuin--Kasteleyn in statistical physics. Prior to this work, deletion--contraction was also the fastest known general-purpose algorithm for these invariants, running in time roughly proportional to the number of spanning trees in the input graph. Here, we give a substantially …
