Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal Volume 13 Issue 2 Article 2 The Structure of the Tutte-Grothendieck Ring of Ribbon Graphs Daniel C. Thompson MIT,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rhumj Recommended Citation Thompson, Daniel C. (2012) "The Structure of the Tutte-Grothendieck Ring of Ribbon Graphs," Rose- Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal: Vol. 13 : Iss. 2 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rhumj/vol13/iss2/2 Rose- Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal The Structure of the Tutte{Grothendieck Ring of Ribbon Graphs Daniel C Thompsona Volume 13, No. 2, Fall 2012 Sponsored by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Department of Mathematics Terre Haute, IN 47803 Email:
[email protected] a http://www.rose-hulman.edu/mathjournal MIT Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal Volume 13, No. 2, Fall 2012 The Structure of the Tutte{Grothendieck Ring of Ribbon Graphs Daniel C Thompson Abstract. W. H. Tutte's 1947 paper on a ring generated by graphs satisfying a contraction-deletion relation is extended to ribbon graphs. This ring of ribbon graphs is a polynomial ring on an infinite set of one-vertex ribbon graphs. Acknowledgements: The LSU Research Experience for Undergraduates Program is supported by a National Science Foundation grant, DMS-0648064. Page 16 RHIT Undergrad. Math. J., Vol. 13, No. 2 1 Introduction In 1947 Tutte [9] discovered the structure of a Grothendieck ring generated by graphs which is universal for a contraction-deletion relation. We extend this computation to an analogous ring defined using ribbon graphs. Ribbon graphs (also called cycle graphs, fat graphs, or graphs with rotation) are com- binatorial objects use to describe the embedding of graphs into surfaces.