Daisy cubes as resonance graphs and maximal independent sets of trees

Abstract: Assume that $G$ is a peripherally 2-colorable graph with inner dual $G^*$ and resonance graph $R(G)$. We first establish a bijection between the set of maximal hypercubes of the resonance graph $R(G)$ and the set of maximal independent sets of the inner dual $G^*$, where $G^*$ is a tree and isomorphic to the $\tau$-graph of $R(G)$. A novel characterization on when resonance graphs are daisy cubes follows naturally. Furthermore, the proof of the characterization provides a binary code labelling for the vertex set of a resonance graph $R(G)$ as a daisy cube with respect to the set of maximal independent sets of the inner dual $G^*$ of $G$. We then show that a daisy cube with at least one edge is a resonance graph of a plane bipartite graph if and only if its $\tau$-graph is a forest. As applications of our main theorems, interesting results are obtained for Fibonacci cubes and Lucas cubes which are special types of daisy cubes. Structure properties are also provided for daisy cubes whose $\tau$-graphs are trees and have at most five maximal hypercubes. We conclude the paper with two algorithms which provide a binary code labelling for the vertex set of a resonance graph as a daisy cube.