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Marked graphs and the chromatic symmetric function

The main result of this paper is the introduction of marked graphs and the marked graph polynomials ($M$-polynomial) associated with them. These polynomials can be defined via a deletion-contraction operation. These polynomials are a generalization of the $W$-polynomial introduced by Noble and Welsh and a specialization of the $\mathbf{V}$-polynomial introduced by Ellis-Monaghan and Moffatt. In addition, we describe an important specialization of the $M$-polynomial which we call the $D$-polynomial. Furthermore, we give an efficient algorithm for computing the chromatic symmetric function of a graph in the \emph{star-basis} of symmetric functions. As an application of these tools, we prove that proper trees of diameter at most 5 can be reconstructed from its chromatic symmetric function.