A complete solution of Hosoya's mystery (Q1920023)

Hosoya's ``mystery'' was his observation of a correspondence between the generating functions \(\phi(C_n,x)\)---the characteristic polynomial of a cycle of length \(n\)---and \(K(PC_n,x+1)\)---the Kekulé structure count of a ``primitive coronoid'' or polygon of \(n\) hexagonal segments of length \((x+1)\). Hosoya observed that \(\phi(C_6,x)\) is \((x^6-qx^4+qx^2-4)\) and that if we make its negative coefficients positive we get \((x^6+qx^4+qx^2+4)\) which is \(K(PC_6,x+1)\). Cyvin found that this sort of correspondence holds for all \(n\), not merely \(n=6\), but was unable to explain it. This paper gives the explanation by relating these two generating functions to the matching polynomial of a ``crown graph'' obtained from \(C_n\) by replacing each point by a fan of \(x\) lines. This is accomplished by using several known results, references for which are given.