No label defined (Q4430893)

The stability number \(\alpha(G)\) of the graph \(G\) is the cardinality of a maximum stable set in \(G\). If \(s_k\) denotes the number of stable sets of size \(k\) in graph \(G\), then \[ I(G; x)= \sum^{\alpha(G)}_{k=0} s_k x^k \] is the independence polynomial of \(G\). Hamidoune showed that for any claw-free graph \(G\) (i.e., a graph having no subgraph isomorphic to \(K_{1,3}\)), \(I(G; x)\) is unimodal, that is, there is some \(k\in \{0,1,\dots,\alpha(G)\}\) such that \(0\leq s_0\leq s_1\leq\cdots\leq s_k\geq s_{k+1}\geq\cdots\geq s_{\alpha(G)}\). \textit{J. I. Brown}, \textit{K. Dilcher} and \textit{R. J. Nowakowski} [J. Algebr. Comb. 11, 197-210 (2000; Zbl 0994.05109)] conjectured that \(I(G;x)\) is unimodal for any well-covered graph \(G\) (a graph is well covered if all its maximal stable sets have the same size). Ravindra proved that a tree \(T\) on \(n> 1\) is well covered if and only if \(T\) has a perfect matching \(M\) consisting of pendant edges. If the edges of \(M\) are incident to the vertices of a path, then we call \(T\) a centipede. In this paper we prove that the independence polynomial of any centipede is unimodal. Thus we give a positive, but partial, answer to the conjecture mentioned above and also to the question whether the independence polynomial of any tree is unimodal, formulated by \textit{Y. Alvi}, \textit{P. J. Malde}, \textit{A. J. Schwenk} and \textit{P. Erdős} [Congr. Numerantium 58, 15-23 (1987; Zbl 0679.05061)].