Hypergraph independence polynomials with a zero close to the origin

Abstract

For each uniformity $k \geq 3$, we construct $k$-uniform linear hypergraphs $G$ with arbitrarily large maximum degree $\Delta$ whose independence polynomial $Z_G$ has a root $\lambda$ with $\lvert\lambda\rvert = O\left(\frac{\log \Delta}{\Delta}\right)$. This disproves a recent conjecture of Galvin, McKinley, Perkins, Sarantis, and Tetali.