Closing Trees into Unicyclic Counterexamples
This addresses a theoretical problem in graph theory and combinatorics for researchers studying polynomial properties, but it is incremental as it builds on existing closure families and methods.
The paper tackles the problem of constructing unicyclic graphs with independence polynomials that are unimodal but not log-concave, resulting in an explicit infinite family of such graphs, with exact mode formulas verified for parameters up to k ≤ 400.
We develop a family-based route to unicyclic graphs whose independence polynomials are unimodal but not log-concave. The paper is organized around one flagship statement: for the explicit KL-closure family $U_{k,r}$, with $r\in\{0,1,2\}$ and admissible $k$, the independence polynomial is unimodal but not log-concave. The proof separates the closure polynomial into a dominant convolution term and a real-rooted correction term. On the non-log-concavity side, we prove symbolically that the penultimate log-concavity inequality fails for every admissible parameter. On the unimodality side, we prove that the main convolution term $H_{k,r}=G_kF_{k+r}$ is unimodal with a controlled mode, using a combination of exact coefficient formulas, Ibragimov's strong-unimodality principle, and a residue-class growth argument. Darroch localization and an adjacent-mode bridge lemma then transfer that mode statement to the full KL closure polynomial. This yields an explicit infinite family of unicyclic graphs with unimodal but non-log-concave independence polynomials. In the exact range $k\le 400$, we further verify that the penultimate break is unique and determine exact mode formulas for $H_{k,r}$, the binomial correction term, and $I(U_{k,r};x)$ itself. The paper also places the KL family inside a broader reservoir program involving Galvin, Ramos-Sun, and Bautista-Ramos trees, from which we obtain substantial universal exact theorems for finite ranges.