Fomichev–Karev conjecture on graph invariants

From papers

Let G\mathbf{G} be the set of isomorphism classes of finite simple graphs. For GGG\in\mathbf{G}, let φ(G)\varphi(G) be the graph invariant defined by

φ(G)=23V(G)EE(G)(2)Eχ3(GE),\varphi(G)=2^{-3|V(G)|}\sum_{E'\subset E(G)}(-2)^{|E'|}\chi_3(G|_{E'}),

where χ3(G)\chi_3(G) is the number of proper vertex colorings of GG with three colors. Let

ψ(G)=122V(G)UV(G)(12)V(G)U2corank(A(GU)),\psi(G)=\frac{1}{2^{2|V(G)|}}\sum_{U\subset V(G)}\left(-\frac{1}{2}\right)^{|V(G)|-|U|}2^{\operatorname{corank}(A(G|_U))},

where GUG|_U is the induced subgraph on UU, A(GU)A(G|_U) is its adjacency matrix over the field with two elements, and corank\operatorname{corank} denotes matrix corank. Fomichev–Karev conjecture. For every GGG\in\mathbf{G},

φ(G)=ψ(G).\varphi(G)=\psi(G).

Fomichev and Karev introduced these invariants in connection with graph Chmutov–Varchenko relations and the sl(2)\mathfrak{sl}(2)-weight system. The conjecture is proved in the paper, so it is no longer open.

Progress summary

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Qi Yan, Qingying Deng and Xian'an Jin, “Proof of a conjecture of Fomichev and Karev”, arXiv:2510.27279 (2025).

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.