Levit–Mandrescu Unimodality Conjecture

What the AI did

The models produced an explicit counterexample: the whiskering of $E_{588} \vee (39K_{11} \sqcup 85K_{12})$, a very well-covered graph on 4,074 vertices, whose independence polynomial $(1+x)^{1449}(1+2x)^{588} + (1+x)^{1913}(1+12x)^{39}(1+13x)^{85} - (1+x)^{2037}$ has a strict local valley at $a_{1095}$. Per the announcement, the search took a few hours once the question was posed.

Verification

Announced on LinkedIn by Lucas B. (Head of AI Research, Jump Trading); no preprint yet, and the reviewers credited are internal to the team rather than independent. The stated polynomial was recomputed with exact integer arithmetic: $a_{1094} > a_{1095} < a_{1096}$ holds, so the polynomial given is genuinely not unimodal, and its low-order coefficients ($a_0 = 1$, $a_1 = 4074$) are consistent with a graph on 4,074 vertices. What remains unchecked is that the whiskered graph's independence polynomial equals the polynomial stated.

Source

• AnnouncementLucas B. (Jump Trading), LinkedIn announcement