Tutte polynomials and related asymptotic limiting functions for recursive families of graphs

We prove several theorems concerning Tutte polynomials T(G, x, y) for recursive families of graphs. In addition to its interest in mathematics, the Tutte polynomial is equivalent to an important function in statistical physics, the partition function of the q-state Potts model, Z(G, q, v), where v is a temperature-dependent variable. These theorems determine the general structure of the Tutte polynomial for a homogeneous cyclic clan graph J_m (K_r) comprised of a chain of m copies of the complete graph K_r such that the linkage L between each successive pair of K_r's is a join, and r and m are arbitrary. The explicit calculation of the case r = 3 (for arbitrary m) is presented. The continuous accumulation set of the zeros of Z in the limit m → ∞ is considered. Further, we present calculations of two special cases of Tutte polynomials, namely flow and reliability polynomials, for homogeneous cyclic clan graphs and discuss the respective continuous accumulation sets of their zeros in the limit m → ∞. Special valuations of Tutte polynomials give enumerations of spanning trees and acyclic orientations. Two theorems are presented that determine the number of spanning trees on J_m (K_r) and the graph I_m (K_r comprised of a chain of m copies of the complete graph K_r such that the linkage between each successive pair of K_r's is the identity linkage, and r and m are arbitrary. We report calculations of the number of acyclic orientations for strips of the square lattice and use these to suggest an improved lower bound on the exponential growth rate of the number of these acyclic orientations.