Subgraphs versus Orientations: Infinite families of equidistributions

Abstract: A classical enumerative result states that, given a graph $G$ and a vertex $u$, the number of connected subgraphs of $G$ is equal to the number of orientations of $G$ such that every vertex can reach $u$ by a directed path. We show that this result is an instance of a much broader set of enumerative identities between subgraphs and orientations corresponding to various connectivity constraints. Namely, given two sets of pairs of vertices $A={(u_i,v_i), i\in[k]}$ and $B={(u_i',v_i'), i\in[l]}$, we consider the orientations $α$ of $G$ such that adding the elements of $A$ and $B$ as additional directed edges to $α$ gives an orientation $α'$ in which $v_i$ cannot reach $u_i$ for all $i\in[k]$, but $v_i'$ can reach $u_i'$ for all $i\in[l]$. We show that this set of orientations is equinumerous to a set of subgraphs satisfying the ``same" connectivity constraints defined in terms of $A$ and $B$. We also extend our results to the enumeration of equivalence classes of orientations satisfying such connectivity constraints. Precisely, we consider the equivalence classes under cycle reversal, cocycle reversal, or cycle-cocycle reversal. We show that the equivalences classes are equinumerous to some sets of subgraphs defined by connectivity and acyclicity constraints.