Tutte Polynomial of Scale-Free Networks

Abstract

The Tutte polynomial of a graph, or equivalently the q-state Potts model partition function, is a two-variable polynomial graph invariant of considerable importance in both statistical physics and combinatorics. The computation of this invariant for a graph is NP-hard in general. In this paper, we focus on two iteratively growing scale-free networks, which are ubiquitous in real-life systems. Based on their self-similar structures, we mainly obtain recursive formulas for the Tutte polynomials of two scale-free networks (lattices), one is fractal and “large world”, while the other is non-fractal but possess the small-world property. Furthermore, we give some exact analytical expressions of the Tutte polynomial for several special points at (x, y)-plane, such as, the number of spanning trees, the number of acyclic orientations, etc.