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Hypergraph Tutte Polynomial


The two-variable hypergraph Tutte polynomial is the polymatroid Tutte polynomial of the integer base vectors determined by a connected hypergraph. For H=(V,E), form its incidence bipartite graph, with one graph vertex for each element of V and each hyperedge in E, and a graph edge joining v to e when v in e. The bases are the nonnegative integer vectors h in Z^E for which some spanning tree T of that bipartite graph satisfies deg_T(e)=h(e)+1 at every hyperedge graph vertex. These vectors, called hypertrees in this setting, are counted once even if several spanning trees realize the same vector (Tóthmérész 2026).

Tóthmérész (2026) proves that internal and external embedding activities give this two-variable polynomial, extending the embedding-activity construction of the ordinary Tutte polynomial. The embedding data are cyclic orders at the vertices of the incidence bipartite graph and a starting node-edge pair. The resulting polynomial is independent of these choices. The paper also extends computation-tree activities to polymatroids, with both minimum and maximum variants. The conjecture about a different, alternative definition of embedding activity remains open (Tóthmérész 2026, §5).


See also

Bipartite Graph, Hypergraph, Polymatroid, Polymatroid Tutte Polynomial, Spanning Tree, Tutte Polynomial

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References

Tóthmérész, L. "The Two-Variable Hypergraph Tutte Polynomial via Embedding Activities and Computation-Tree Activities." Elec. J. Combin. 33, P4.7, 2026. https://doi.org/10.37236/13306.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Hypergraph Tutte Polynomial." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HypergraphTuttePolynomial.html

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