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Bounds For The Real Zeros of Chromatic Polynomials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

F. M. DONG  and
K. M. KOH
F. M. DONG
Affiliation:
Mathematics and Mathematics Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore637616 (e-mail: [email protected])
K. M. KOH
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, National University of Singapore, Singapore117543
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Abstract

Sokal in 2001 proved that the complex zeros of the chromatic polynomial PG(q) of any graph G lie in the disc |q| < 7.963907Δ, where Δ is the maximum degree of G. This result answered a question posed by Brenti, Royle and Wagner in 1994 and hence proved a conjecture proposed by Biggs, Damerell and Sands in 1972. Borgs gave a short proof of Sokal's result. Fernández and Procacci recently improved Sokal's result to |q| < 6.91Δ. In this paper, we shall show that all real zeros of PG(q) are in the interval [0,5.664Δ). For the special case that Δ = 3, all real zeros of PG(q) are in the interval [0,4.765Δ).

Type
Paper
Information
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing , Volume 17 , Issue 6 , November 2008 , pp. 749 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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