Notes on the Neighborhood Polynomials

Abstract

The neighborhood polynomial of graph $G$, denoted by $N(G,x)$, is the generating function for the number of vertex subsets of $G$ which are subsets of open neighborhoods of vertices in $G$. For any graph polynomial, it can be useful to generate a new family of polynomials by introducing some restrictions and characterizations. In this paper, we investigate two new graph polynomials that are obtained from $N(G,x)$ by adding independence or connectivity restrictions to the vertex subsets or to the subgraphs induced by the vertex subsets which are generated by $N(G,x)$. These new polynomials are not only related to $N(G,x)$, but also having strong connections to other known graph polynomials of G or its subgraphs, such as independence polynomials or subgraph component polynomials.