The chromatic polynomial is a graph polynomial studied in algebraic graph theory, a branch of mathematics. It counts the number of graph colorings as a function of the number of colors and was originally defined by George David Birkhoff to study the four color problem. It was generalised to the Tutte polynomial by Hassler Whitney and W. T. Tutte, linking it to the Potts model of statistical physics.
George David Birkhoff introduced the chromatic polynomial in 1912, defining it only for planar graphs, in an attempt to prove the four color theorem. If denotes the number of proper colorings of G with k colors then one could establish the four color theorem by showing for all planar graphs G. In this way he hoped to apply the powerful tools of analysis and algebra for studying the roots of polynomials to the combinatorial coloring problem.
Hassler Whitney generalised Birkhoff’s polynomial from the planar case to general graphs in 1932. In 1968, Ronald C. Read asked which polynomials are the chromatic polynomials of some graph, a question that remains open, and introduced the concept of chromatically equivalent graphs. Today, chromatic polynomials are one of the central objects of algebraic graph theory.
For a graph G, counts the number of its (proper) vertex k-colorings.
Other commonly used notations include , , or .
There is a unique polynomial which evaluated at any integer k ≥ 0 coincides with ; it is called the chromatic polynomial of G.
For example, to color the path graph on 3 vertices with k colors, one may choose any of the k colors for the first vertex, any of the remaining colors for the second vertex, and lastly for the third vertex, any of the colors that are different from the second vertex's choice.
Therefore, is the number of k-colorings of .
For a variable x (not necessarily integer), we thus have .
(Colorings which differ only by permuting colors or by automorphisms of G are still counted as different.
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The Tutte polynomial, also called the dichromate or the Tutte–Whitney polynomial, is a graph polynomial. It is a polynomial in two variables which plays an important role in graph theory. It is defined for every undirected graph and contains information about how the graph is connected. It is denoted by . The importance of this polynomial stems from the information it contains about .
In graph theory, a graph property or graph invariant is a property of graphs that depends only on the abstract structure, not on graph representations such as particular labellings or drawings of the graph. While graph drawing and graph representation are valid topics in graph theory, in order to focus only on the abstract structure of graphs, a graph property is defined to be a property preserved under all possible isomorphisms of a graph. In other words, it is a property of the graph itself, not of a specific drawing or representation of the graph.
William Thomas Tutte OC FRS FRSC (tʌt; 14 May 1917 – 2 May 2002) was an English and Canadian codebreaker and mathematician. During the Second World War, he made a brilliant and fundamental advance in cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher, a major Nazi German cipher system which was used for top-secret communications within the Wehrmacht High Command. The high-level, strategic nature of the intelligence obtained from Tutte's crucial breakthrough, in the bulk decrypting of Lorenz-enciphered messages specifically, contributed greatly, and perhaps even decisively, to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
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