We prove tight upper bounds on the logarithmic derivative of the independence and matching polynomials of d-regular graphs. For independent sets, this theorem is a strengthening of the results of Kahn, Galvin and Tet ali, and Zhao showing that a union of copies of @math maximizes the number of independent sets and the independence polynomial of a d-regular graph. For matchings, this shows that the matching polynomial and the total number of matchings of a d-regular graph are maximized by a union of copies of @math . Using this we prove the asymptotic upper matching conjecture of Friedland, Krop, Lundow, and Markstr "om. In probabilistic language, our main theorems state that for all d-regular graphs and all @math , the occupancy fraction of the hard-core model and the edge occupancy fraction of the monomer-dimer model with fugacity @math are maximized by @math . Our method involves constrained optimization problems over distributions of random variables and applies to all d-regular graphs directly, without a reduction to the bipartite case.
In @cite_31 , Csikv 'a ri proved the lower matching conjecture' of @cite_16 and in @cite_22 gave a new lower bound on the number of perfect matchings of @math -regular, vertex-transitive, bipartite graphs, in both comparing an arbitrary graph with the infinite @math -regular tree (see also the recent extension by Lelarge @cite_13 to irregular graphs). Proposition 2.10 in @cite_22 states that the edge occupancy fraction of any @math -regular, vertex-transitive, bipartite graph is at least that of the infinite @math -regular tree; in Theorem we prove an analogous result for independent sets. Csikv 'a ri's techniques in the two papers are different than the methods of this paper, but similar in that he bounds the occupancy fraction instead of directly working with the partition function. His results rely on an elegant interplay between the Heilman-Lieb theorem @cite_4 and Benjamini-Schramm convergence of bounded-degree graphs.
@cite_4 @cite_22 @cite_31 @cite_16 @cite_13
2963702702 2144865572 1485502831 2128943288
We prove tight upper bounds on the logarithmic derivative of the independence and matching polynomials of d-regular graphs. For independent sets, this theorem is a strengthening of Kahn's result that a disjoint union of copies of Kd;d maximizes the number of independent sets of a bipartite d-regular graph, Galvin and Tet ali's result that the independence polynomial is maximized by the same, and Zhao's extension of both results to all d-regular graphs. For matchings, this shows that the matching polynomial and the total number of matchings of a d-regular graph are maximized by a union of copies of Kd;d. Using this we prove the asymptotic upper matching conjecture of Friedland, Krop, Lundow, and Markstrom. In probabilistic language, our main theorems state that for all d-regular graphs and all �, the occupancy fraction of the hard-core model and the edge occupancy fraction of the monomer-dimer model with fugacity � are maximized by Kd;d. Our method involves constrained optimization problems over distributions of random variables and applies to all d-regular graphs directly, without a reduction to the bipartite case. Using a variant of the method we prove a lower bound on the occupancy fraction of the hard-core model on any d-regular, vertex-transitive, bipartite graph: the occupancy fraction of such a graph is strictly greater than the occupancy fraction of the unique translationinvariant hard-core measure on the infinite d-regular tree We give a sharp lower bound on the number of matchings of a given size in a bipartite graph. When specialized to regular bipartite graphs, our results imply Friedland's Lower Matching Conjecture and Schrijver's theorem proven by Gurvits and Csikvari. Indeed, our work extends the recent work of Csikvari done for regular and bi-regular bipartite graphs. Moreover, our lower bounds are order optimal as they are attained for a sequence of @math -lifts of the original graph as well as for random @math -lifts of the original graph when @math tends to infinity. We then extend our results to permanents and subpermanents sums. For permanents, we are able to recover the lower bound of Schrijver recently proved by Gurvits using stable polynomials. Our proof is algorithmic and borrows ideas from the theory of local weak convergence of graphs, statistical physics and covers of graphs. We provide new lower bounds for subpermanents sums and obtain new results on the number of matching in random @math -lifts with some implications for the matching measure and the spectral measure of random @math -lifts as well as for the spectral measure of infinite trees. A theorem of A. Schrijver asserts that a d-regular bipartite graph on 2n vertices has at least @math perfect matchings. L. Gurvits gave an extension of Schrijver’s theorem for matchings of density p. In this paper we give a stronger version of Gurvits’s theorem in the case of vertex-transitive bipartite graphs. This stronger version in particular implies that for every positive integer k, there exists a positive constant c(k) such that if a d-regular vertex-transitive bipartite graph on 2n vertices contains a cycle of length at most k, then it has at least @math perfect matchings. Friedland's Lower Matching Conjecture asserts that if @math is a @math --regular bipartite graph on @math vertices, and @math denotes the number of matchings of size @math , then @math where @math . When @math , this conjecture reduces to a theorem of Schrijver which says that a @math --regular bipartite graph on @math vertices has at least @math perfect matchings. L. Gurvits proved an asymptotic version of the Lower Matching Conjecture, namely he proved that @math In this paper, we prove the Lower Matching Conjecture. In fact, we will prove a slightly stronger statement which gives an extra @math factor compared to the conjecture if @math is separated away from @math and @math , and is tight up to a constant factor if @math is separated away from @math . We will also give a new proof of Gurvits's and Schrijver's theorems, and we extend these theorems to @math --biregular bipartite graphs.