KAIST Discrete Math Seminar

The chromatic polynomial of a graph counts the number of proper colorings of the graph. We give an affirmative answer to the conjecture of Read (1968) and Welsh (1976) that the absolute values of the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial form a log-concave sequence. We define a sequence of numerical invariants of projective hypersurfaces analogous to the Milnor number of local analytic hypersurfaces. Then we show log-concavity of the sequence by answering a question of Trung and Verma on mixed multiplicities of ideals. The conjecture on the chromatic polynomial follows as a special case.