Trung's construction and the Charney-Davis conjecture (Q2227933)

Suppose that \(H\) is a graph and \(v\) is a non-isolated vertex of \(H\). Let \(a, b\) and \(c\) be three new vertices. Join \(c\) to \(b\) and to every neighbor of \(v\); join \(b\) to \(a\); and join \(a\) to \(v\). The obtained graph is denoted by \(\mathrm{Tr}(H, v)\). This construction is firstly used by \textit{M. R. Pinter} [J. Graph Theory 19(1), 69--81 (1995; Zbl 0813.05054)]. In the present paper it is shown that some properties such as being a well covered, a \(W_2\) graph and a Gorenstein graph are preserved by passing from \(H\) to \(\mathrm{Tr}(H,v)\) and vice versa. Also for each non-isolated vertex \(v\) of \(H\), \(I(\mathrm{Tr}(H,v),x)\) is gaind in terms of \(I(H, x)\) and \(I(H_v,x)\), where for each simple graph \(G=(V(G), E(G))\) and vertex \(v\) of \(G\), with \(a_i\) the number of independent set of vertices of \(G\) of size \(i\), \(I(G,x)=\sum a_ix^i\) is the independence polynomial of \(G\) and \(G_v=G\setminus (\{v\}\cup \{u\in V(G) | \{u,v\}\in E(G)\})\). There is a conjecture by Charney and Davis which states that if \(G\) is a graph with no isolated vertices which is Gorenstein and the maximum size of its independent set of vertices, \(\alpha (G)\), is even, then \[(-1)^{\frac{\alpha (G)}{2}} I(G, -\frac{1}{2})\geq 0.\] At last in the paper under review, by using the gained results, which are stated above, an affirmative answer is given to Charney-Davis conjecture for special class of graphs. In fact the authors have shown that the class of Gorenstein graphs with girth at least 4 such that \(\alpha (G)\) is even satisfies the conjecture. The paper is well organized and the results are well explained.