English

On the roots of the subtree polynomial

Combinatorics 2018-10-23 v1

Abstract

For a tree TT, the subtree polynomial of TT is the generating polynomial for the number of subtrees of TT. We show that the complex roots of the subtree polynomial are contained in the disk {zC ⁣: z1+33}\left\{z\in\mathbb{C}\colon\ |z|\leq 1+\sqrt[3]{3}\right\}, and that K1,3K_{1,3} is the only tree whose subtree polynomial has a root on the boundary. We also prove that the closure of the collection of all real roots of subtree polynomials contains the interval [2,1][-2,-1], while the intervals (,133)(\infty,-1-\sqrt[3]{3}), [1,0)[-1,0), and (0,)(0,\infty) are root-free.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.08655,
  title  = {On the roots of the subtree polynomial},
  author = {Jason I. Brown and Lucas Mol},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.08655},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

16 pages, 3 figures, comments welcome