Combinatorial aspects of the Löwenstein avoidance rule. Part I: the independence polynomial

According to Löwenstein's rule, Al–O–Al bridges are forbidden in the aluminosilicate framework of zeolites. A graph-theoretical interpretation of the rule, based on the concept of independent sets, was proposed earlier. It was shown that one can apply the vector method to the associated periodic net and define a maximal Al/(Al+Si) ratio for any aluminosilicate framework following the rule; this ratio was called the independence ratio of the net. According to this method, the determination of the independence ratio of a periodic net requires finding a subgroup of the translation group of the net for which the quotient graph and a fundamental transversal have the same independence ratio. This article and a companion paper deal with practical issues regarding the calculation of the independence ratio of mainly 2-periodic nets and the determination of site distributions realizing this ratio. The first paper describes a calculation technique based on propositional calculus and introduces a multivariate polynomial, called the independence polynomial. This polynomial can be calculated in an automatic way and provides the list of all maximal independent sets of the graph, hence also the value of its independence ratio. Some properties of this polynomial are discussed; the independence polynomials of some simple graphs, such as short paths or cycles, are determined as examples of calculation techniques. The method is also applied to the determination of the independence ratio of the 2-periodic net dhc.

The independence polynomial of inverse commuting graph of dihedral groups

Set of vertices not joined by an edge in a graph is called the independent set of the graph. The independence polynomial of a graph is a polynomial whose coefficient is the number of independent sets in the graph. In this research, we introduce and investigate the inverse commuting graph of dihedral groups (D2N) denoted by GIC. It is a graph whose vertex set consists of the non-central elements of the group and for distinct x,y, E D2N, x and y are adjacent if and only if xy = yx = 1 where 1 is the identity element. The independence polynomials of the inverse commuting graph for dihedral groups are also computed. A formula for obtaining such polynomials without getting the independent sets is also found, which was used to compute for dihedral groups of order 18 up to 32.

INDEPENDENCE AND PI POLYNOMIALS FOR FEW STRINGS

If $s_k$ is the number of independent sets of cardinality $k$ in a graph $G$, then $I(G; x)= s_0+s_1x+…+s_{\alpha} x^{\alpha}$ is the independence polynomial of $G$ [ Gutman, I. and Harary, F., Generalizations of the matching polynomial, Utilitas Mathematica 24 (1983) 97-106] , where $\alpha=\alpha(G)$ is the size of a maximum independent set. Also the PI polynomial of a molecular graph $G$ is defined as $A+\sum x^{|E(G)|-N(e)}$, where $N(e)$ is the number of edges parallel to $e$, $A=|V(G)|(|V(G)|+1)/2-|E(G)|$ and summation goes over all edges of $G$. In [T. Do$\check{s}$li$\acute{c}$, A. Loghman and L. Badakhshian, Computing Topological Indices by Pulling a Few Strings, MATCH Commun. Math. Comput. Chem. 67 (2012) 173-190], several topological indices for all graphs consisting of at most three strings are computed. In this paper we compute the PI and independence polynomials for graphs containing one, two and three strings.

Unimodality of independence polynomials of rooted products of graphs

In 1987, Alavi, Malde, Schwenk and Erdős conjectured that the independence polynomial of any tree is unimodal. Although it attracts many researchers' attention, it is still open. Motivated by this conjecture, in this paper, we prove that rooted products of some graphs preserve real rootedness of independence polynomials. As application, we not only give a unified proof for some known results, but also we can apply them to generate infinite kinds of trees whose independence polynomials have only real zeros. Thus their independence polynomials are unimodal.