Special Functions Commons^™

Phylogenetic Networks And Functions That Relate Them, Drew Scalzo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Phylogenetic Networks are defined to be simple connected graphs with exactly n labeled nodes of degree one, called leaves, and where all other unlabeled nodes have a degree of at least three. These structures assist us with analyzing ancestral history, and its close relative - phylogenetic trees - garner the same visualization, but without the graph being forced to be connected. In this paper, we examine the various characteristics of Phylogenetic Networks and functions that take these networks as inputs, and convert them to more complex or simpler structures. Furthermore, we look at the nature of functions as they relate …