Chromatic polynomials of graphs from Kac-Moody algebras

Abstract

We give a new interpretation of the chromatic polynomial of a simple graph G in terms of the Kac-Moody Lie algebra with Dynkin diagram G. We show that the chromatic polynomial is essentially the q-Kostant partition function of this Lie algebra evaluated on the sum of the simple roots. Applying the Peterson recurrence formula for root multiplicities, we obtain a new realization of the chromatic polynomial as a weighted sum of paths in the bond lattice of G.

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