Field theoretic approach to the counting problem of Hamiltonian cycles of graphs

Abstract

A Hamiltonian cycle of a graph is a closed path that visits each site once and only once. I study a field theoretic representation for the number of Hamiltonian cycles for arbitrary graphs. By integrating out quadratic fluctuations around the saddle point, one obtains an estimate for the number which reflects characteristics of graphs well. The accuracy of the estimate is verified by applying it to 2d square lattices with various boundary conditions. This is the first example of extracting meaningful information from the quadratic approximation to the field theory representation.

Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures, uses epsf.sty. Estimates for the site entropy and the gamma exponent indicated explicitly