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Density of Chromatic Roots in Minor-Closed Graph Families

Part of: Graph theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2018

THOMAS J. PERRETT  and
CARSTEN THOMASSEN
THOMAS J. PERRETT
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark (e-mail: perrettt02@hotmail.com)
CARSTEN THOMASSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark (e-mail: perrettt02@hotmail.com)
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Abstract

We prove that the roots of the chromatic polynomials of planar graphs are dense in the interval between 32/27 and 4, except possibly in a small interval around τ + 2 where τ is the golden ratio. This interval arises due to a classical result of Tutte, which states that the chromatic polynomial of every planar graph takes a positive value at τ + 2. Our results lead us to conjecture that τ + 2 is the only such number less than 4.

MSC classification

Primary: 05C31: Graph polynomials
Secondary: 05C15: Coloring of graphs and hypergraphs 05C83: Graph minors
Type
Paper
Information
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing , Volume 27 , Issue 6 , November 2018 , pp. 988 - 998
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

†

Research supported by ERC Advanced Grant GRACOL, project number 320812.

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