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On the Complexity of Computing the Tutte Polynomial of Bicircular Matroids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2006

OMER GIMÉNEZ
Affiliation:
Departament de Matemàtica Aplicada II, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Pau Gargallo 5, 08028 Barcelona, Spain (e-mail: omer.gimenez@upc.es, marc.noy@upc.es)
MARC NOY
Affiliation:
Departament de Matemàtica Aplicada II, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Pau Gargallo 5, 08028 Barcelona, Spain (e-mail: omer.gimenez@upc.es, marc.noy@upc.es)

Abstract

We show that evaluating the Tutte polynomial for the class of bicircular matroids is #P-hard at every point $(x,y)$ except those in the hyperbola $(x-1)(y-1)=1$ and possibly those on the lines $x=0$ and $x=-1$. Since bicircular matroids form a rather restricted subclass of transversal matroids, our results can be seen as a partial strengthening of a result by Colbourn, Provan and Vertigan, namely that the evaluation of the Tutte polynomial for the class of transversal matroids is #P-hard for all points except those in the hyperbola $(x-1)(y-1)=1$.

Type
Paper
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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