English

The chromatic polynomial for cycle graphs

General Mathematics 2019-07-11 v1

Abstract

Let P(G,λ)P(G,\lambda) denote the number of proper vertex colorings of GG with λ\lambda colors. The chromatic polynomial P(Cn,λ)P(C_n,\lambda) for the cycle graph CnC_n is well-known as P(Cn,λ)=(λ1)n+(1)n(λ1)P(C_n,\lambda) = (\lambda-1)^n+(-1)^n(\lambda-1) for all positive integers n1n\ge 1. Also its inductive proof is widely well-known by the \emph{deletion-contraction recurrence}. In this paper, we give this inductive proof again and three other proofs of this formula of the chromatic polynomial for the cycle graph CnC_n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.04320,
  title  = {The chromatic polynomial for cycle graphs},
  author = {Jonghyeon Lee and Heesung Shin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.04320},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

7 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:16:36.492Z