Counting H-colorings of partial k-trees

The problem of counting all H-colorings of a graph G with n vertices is considered. While the problem is, in general, #P-complete, we give linear time algorithms that solve the main variants of this problem when the input graph G is a k-tree or, in the case where G is directed, when the underlying graph of G is a k-tree. Our algorithms remain polynomial even in the case where k = O(log n) or in the case where the size of H is O(n). Our results are easy to implement and imply the existence of polynomial time algorithms for a series of problems on partial k-trees such as core checking and chromatic polynomial computation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.