Expansions of chromatic polynomials and log-concavity

Abstract

In this paper we present several results and open problems about logconcavity properties of sequences associated with graph colorings. Five polynomials intimately related to the chromatic polynomial of a graph are introduced and their zeros, combinatorial and log-concavity properties are studied. Four of these polynomials have never been considered before in the literature and some yield new expansions for the chromatic polynomial.