Preface: Old and New Perspectives on the Tutte Polynomial

Abstract

This paper introduces a special issue on the Tutte polynomial derived from the Sec- ond Workshop on Tutte Polynomials and Applications, 2005, held at the Centre de Recerca Matem atica, Bellaterra, Catalonia. We discuss the prehistory of Tutte polynomials and two cur- rent areas of research, to what extent a graph is determined by its chromatic or Tutte polynomial and generic versions of Tutte polynomials.