Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4655858 Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 2010 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

For any two graphs F and G, let hom(F,G) denote the number of homomorphisms F→G, that is, adjacency preserving maps V(F)→V(G) (graphs may have loops but no multiple edges). We characterize graph parameters f for which there exists a graph F such that f(G)=hom(F,G) for each graph G.The result may be considered as a certain dual of a characterization of graph parameters of the form hom(.,H), given by Freedman, Lovász and Schrijver [M. Freedman, L. Lovász, A. Schrijver, Reflection positivity, rank connectivity, and homomorphisms of graphs, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (2007) 37–51]. The conditions amount to the multiplicativity of f and to the positive semidefiniteness of certain matrices N(f,k).

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Mathematics Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics