Genus polynomials of cycles with double edges (Q2430321)

Two cellular embeddings \(i: G\to S\) and \(j: G\to S\) of a connected graph \(G\) into a closed orientable surface \(S\) are equivalent if there is an orientation-preserving surface homeomorphism \(h: S\to S\) such that \(hi= j\). The genus polynomial of a graph \(G\) is defined by \[ g[G](x)= \sum^\infty_{g=0} a_g z^g, \] where \(a_g\) is the number of equivalence classes of embeddings of \(G\) into the orientable surface \(S+g\) with \(g\) genera. In this paper, the authors compute the genus polynomial of a graph obtained from a cycle by replacing each edge by two multiple edges. The main theorem calculates the generating function \[ g(x,y)= \sum_{g\geq 0,n\geq 3} a_{g,n} x^g y^n, \] where \(a_{g,n}\) is the number of embeddings of \(JC^{(2)}_n\) into \(S_g\). For small \(n\), this reduces to \(g(x,y)= (8+ 136x+ 72x^2)y^3+ (18+ 440x+ 840 x^2)y^4 xabc\). Thus, for example, \(C^{(2)}_3\) has 8 imbeddings in \(S_a,136\) in \(S_1\) in \(S_2\), and no others. Note that J\(8+ 136+ 72= 216= (3!)^2\), as expected.