Graph operations and neighborhood polynomials

Abstract

The neighborhood polynomial of graph $G$ is the generating function for the number of vertex subsets of $G$ of which the vertices have a common neighbor in $G$. In this paper, we investigate the behavior of this polynomial under several graph operations. Specifically, we provide an explicit formula for the neighborhood polynomial of the graph obtained from a given graph $G$ by vertex attachment. We use this result to propose a recursive algorithm for the calculation of the neighborhood polynomial. Finally, we prove that the neighborhood polynomial can be found in polynomial-time in the class of $k$-degenerate graphs.