The Multiorbital Bivariate Chromatic Polynomial: A Subgroup-Lattice Refinement
Abstract
We introduce the multiorbital bivariate chromatic polynomial F_Γ(G;x,y) = \sum_{H\leq G}\frac{1}{|H|}\sum_{h\in H}P_{Γ/h}(x,y), which aggregates the orbital bivariate chromatic polynomials associated with all subgroups of a finite group acting on a graph. We derive the equivalent element-wise representation F_Γ(G;x,y) = \sum_{g\in G}c_G(g)P_{Γ/g}(x,y), where c_G(g) = \sum_{\langle g\rangle\leq H\leq G}\frac{1}{|H|}. The coefficient function depends only on the cyclic subgroup generated by the element and is constant on conjugacy classes. This yields decompositions by cyclic subgroups and conjugacy classes and an interpretation in terms of the incidence algebra of the subgroup lattice. After normalization, the coefficients define a probability distribution obtained by choosing a subgroup uniformly and then an element uniformly from that subgroup. We also establish diagonal multiplicativity for disjoint unions and a weighted cycle-index expression for edgeless graphs. A further contribution concerns the distinguishing power of the orbital bivariate chromatic polynomial. We answer a question of Dohmen and Lange-Geisler affirmatively by exhibiting two non-isomorphic graphs, P_3 and K_2 \mathbin{\dot\cup} K_1 under C_2-actions, with identical orbital bivariate chromatic polynomials. The two actions nevertheless have different multiorbital bivariate chromatic polynomials. Thus the multiorbital polynomial is not determined by the orbital bivariate polynomial, whereas the converse question remains open.
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BibTeX
@misc{gerling2026multiorbital,
title = {{The Multiorbital Bivariate Chromatic Polynomial: A Subgroup-Lattice Refinement}},
author = {Melanie Gerling},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01866},
eprint = {2609.01866},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01866},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Multiorbital Bivariate Chromatic Polynomial: A Subgroup-Lattice Refinement
AU - Melanie Gerling
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01866
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01866
AB - We introduce the multiorbital bivariate chromatic polynomial F_Γ(G;x,y) = \sum_{H\leq G}\frac{1}{|H|}\sum_{h\in H}P_{Γ/h}(x,y), which aggregates the orbital bivariate chromatic polynomials associated with all subgroups of a finite group acting on a graph. We derive the equivalent element-wise representation F_Γ(G;x,y) = \sum_{g\in G}c_G(g)P_{Γ/g}(x,y), where c_G(g) = \sum_{\langle g\rangle\leq H\leq G}\frac{1}{|H|}. The coefficient function depends only on the cyclic subgroup generated by the element and is constant on conjugacy classes. This yields decompositions by cyclic subgroups and conjugacy classes and an interpretation in terms of the incidence algebra of the subgroup lattice. After normalization, the coefficients define a probability distribution obtained by choosing a subgroup uniformly and then an element uniformly from that subgroup. We also establish diagonal multiplicativity for disjoint unions and a weighted cycle-index expression for edgeless graphs. A further contribution concerns the distinguishing power of the orbital bivariate chromatic polynomial. We answer a question of Dohmen and Lange-Geisler affirmatively by exhibiting two non-isomorphic graphs, P_3 and K_2 \mathbin{\dot\cup} K_1 under C_2-actions, with identical orbital bivariate chromatic polynomials. The two actions nevertheless have different multiorbital bivariate chromatic polynomials. Thus the multiorbital polynomial is not determined by the orbital bivariate polynomial, whereas the converse question remains open.
ER -