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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kauffman, Louis H., Silver, Daniel S., Williams, Susan G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.16635
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author Kauffman, Louis H.
Silver, Daniel S.
Williams, Susan G.
author_facet Kauffman, Louis H.
Silver, Daniel S.
Williams, Susan G.
contents For any cubic graph in a closed orientable surface and a perfect matching, the Penrose-Kauffman polynomial is a sum of chromatic polynomials of a collection of associated graphs. A knot-theoretic perspective affords elementary proofs of old and new results about the polynomial. The Four Color Theorem is shown to be equivalent to a statement about 3-coloring alternating link diagrams in the plane that are reduced and have no bigon regions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_16635
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Penrose-Kauffman Polynomial
Kauffman, Louis H.
Silver, Daniel S.
Williams, Susan G.
Geometric Topology
Primary 05C15, secondary 57M15
For any cubic graph in a closed orientable surface and a perfect matching, the Penrose-Kauffman polynomial is a sum of chromatic polynomials of a collection of associated graphs. A knot-theoretic perspective affords elementary proofs of old and new results about the polynomial. The Four Color Theorem is shown to be equivalent to a statement about 3-coloring alternating link diagrams in the plane that are reduced and have no bigon regions.
title The Penrose-Kauffman Polynomial
topic Geometric Topology
Primary 05C15, secondary 57M15
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.16635