Cardinalities of the total number of independent sets

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kovács, Benedek, Nagy, Zoltán Lóránt
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kovács, Benedek
Nagy, Zoltán Lóránt
author_facet Kovács, Benedek
Nagy, Zoltán Lóránt
contents We study the set of numbers the total number of independent sets can admit in $n$-vertex graphs. In this paper, we prove that the cardinality $\mathcal{N}i(n)$ of this set is very close to $2^n$ in the following sense: $\mathcal{N}i(n)/2^n = O(n^{-1/5})$ while for infinitely many $n$, we have $\log_2(\mathcal{N}i(n)/2^n)\ge -2^{(1+o(1)\sqrt{\log_2 n}}$. This set is also precisely the set of possible values of the independence polynomial $I_G(x)$ at $x=1$ for $n$-vertex graphs $G$. As an application, we address an additive combinatorial problem on subsets of a given vector space that avoid certain intersection patterns with respect to subspaces.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_24794
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cardinalities of the total number of independent sets
Kovács, Benedek
Nagy, Zoltán Lóránt
Combinatorics
05C69 (Primary) 05C30, 05C31, 05C76, 51E21 (Secondary)
We study the set of numbers the total number of independent sets can admit in $n$-vertex graphs. In this paper, we prove that the cardinality $\mathcal{N}i(n)$ of this set is very close to $2^n$ in the following sense: $\mathcal{N}i(n)/2^n = O(n^{-1/5})$ while for infinitely many $n$, we have $\log_2(\mathcal{N}i(n)/2^n)\ge -2^{(1+o(1)\sqrt{\log_2 n}}$. This set is also precisely the set of possible values of the independence polynomial $I_G(x)$ at $x=1$ for $n$-vertex graphs $G$. As an application, we address an additive combinatorial problem on subsets of a given vector space that avoid certain intersection patterns with respect to subspaces.
title Cardinalities of the total number of independent sets
topic Combinatorics
05C69 (Primary) 05C30, 05C31, 05C76, 51E21 (Secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.24794