Four coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of the Coxeter transformation. (Q1889477)

The characteristic polynomial \(F(\lambda)\) of the Coxeter transformation connected with a forest \(F\) can be characterized by the following properties: (i) \(F(\lambda)\) equals the product of the polynomials of the components of \(F\). (ii) \(F(\lambda)\) equals 1 if \(F\) is empty and \(\lambda+1\) if \(F\) contains a single vertex. (iii) If \(F\) is a tree, then \(F(\lambda)=F_2(\lambda)F_{-2}(\lambda)-\lambda F_1(\lambda)F_{-1}(\lambda)\), where \(F_2\) and \(F_{-2}\) are trees obtained from \(F\) by removing an edge between a fixed pair of adjacent vertices \(u,v\), while \(F_1\) and \(F_{-1}\) are forests obtained from \(F_2\) and \(F_{-2}\) by removing vertices \(u,v\). The authors compute formulas for the coefficients of \(\lambda^i\) (\(i=0,\dots,3)\) in \(F(\lambda)\), expressed in terms of the degrees of vertices, the number of components and the number of vertices of \(F\).