Strongly Polynomial Sequences as Interpretations

A.J Goodall (1) , Jaroslav Nesetril (1) , Patrice Ossona de Mendez (1, 2)

1 IUUK - Computer Science Institute of Charles University [Prague]
2 CAMS - Centre d'Analyse et de Mathématique sociales

A strongly polynomial sequence of graphs $(G_n)$ is a sequence $(G_n)_{n\in\bbbn}$ of finite graphs such that, for every graph $F$, the number of homomorphisms from $F$ to $G_n$ is a fixed polynomial function of $n$ (depending on $F$). For example, $(K_n)$ is strongly polynomial since the number of homomorphisms from $F$ to $K_n$ is the chromatic polynomial of $F$ evaluated at $n$. In earlier work of de la Harpe and Jaeger, and more recently of Averbouch, Garijo, Godlin, Goodall, Makowsky, Nešetřil, Tittmann, Zilber and others, various examples of strongly polynomial sequences and constructions for families of such sequences have been found. %Many graph polynomials, such as the Tutte polynomial and independence polynomial, are determined by strongly polynomial sequences of graphs. We give a new model-theoretic method of constructing strongly polynomial sequences of graphs that uses interpretation schemes of graphs in more general relational structures. This surprisingly easy yet general method encompasses all previous constructions and produces many more. We conjecture that, under mild assumptions, all strongly polynomial sequences of graphs can be produced by the general method of quantifier-free interpretation of graphs in certain basic relational structures (essentially disjoint unions of transitive tournaments with added unary relations). We verify this conjecture for strongly polynomial sequences of graphs with uniformly bounded degree.

Domaines: Combinatoire [math.CO]

A.J Goodall, Jaroslav Nesetril, Patrice Ossona de Mendez. Strongly Polynomial Sequences as Interpretations. 2014. ⟨hal-00989251⟩