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Two problems on independent sets in graphs

Let $i_t(G)$ denote the number of independent sets of size $t$ in a graph $G$. Levit and Mandrescu have conjectured that for all bipartite $G$ the sequence $(i_t(G))_{t \geq 0}$ (the {\em independent set sequence} of $G$) is unimodal. We provide evidence for this conjecture by showing that is true for almost all equibipartite graphs. Specifically, we consider the random equibipartite graph $G(n,n,p)$, and show that for any fixed $p\in(0,1]$ its independent set sequence is almost surely unimodal, and moreover almost surely log-concave except perhaps for a vanishingly small initial segment of the sequence. We obtain similar results for $p=\tildeΩ(n^{-1/2})$. We also consider the problem of estimating $i(G)=\sum_{t \geq 0} i_t(G)$ for $G$ in various families. We give a sharp upper bound on the number of independent sets in an $n$-vertex graph with minimum degree $δ$, for all fixed $δ$ and sufficiently large $n$. Specifically, we show that the maximum is achieved uniquely by $K_{δ, n-δ}$, the complete bipartite graph with $δ$ vertices in one partition class and $n-δ$ in the other. We also present a weighted generalization: for all fixed $x>0$ and $δ>0$, as long as $n=n(x,δ)$ is large enough, if $G$ is a graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree $δ$ then $\sum_{t \geq 0} i_t(G)x^t \leq \sum_{t \geq 0} i_t(K_{δ, n-δ})x^t$ with equality if and only if $G=K_{δ, n-δ}$.