Maximum chromatic polynomial of 3-chromatic blocks (Q1366786)

This article continues the work done by the author in [Maximum chromatic polynomials of 2-connected graphs, J. Graph Theory 18, No. 4, 329-336 (1994; Zbl 0809.05046)]. In that paper it was shown that the 2-connected graph of order \(n\) with the greatest number \(P(G,3)\) of proper 3-colourings is \(C_n\) (and, for \(n=5\), \(K_{2,3}\)), and that \(K_{2,n-2}\) ties for second place with \(D_n\) if \(n\) is odd and \(F_n\) if \(n\) is even, where \(D_n\) (respectively, \(F_n\)) is obtained from \(C_4\) by connecting two nonadjacent (respectively, adjacent) vertices by a path of length \(n-3\). The present paper identifies the third place finishers: \(D_n\) if \(n\) is even and \(F_n\) if \(n\) is odd, except that a couple of other graphs rob \(D_6\) of the show position and one other graph grabs a share of the honours with \(D_8\). Once all the bipartite graphs have been disqualified, however. \(D_n\) comes home the clear winner for all even \(n\geq 6\), as the author conjectured in his previous paper.