Benjamini-Schramm convergence and the distribution of chromatic roots for sparse graphs

Abstract: We define the chromatic measure of a finite simple graph as the uniform distribution on its chromatic roots. We show that for a Benjamini-Schramm convergent sequence of finite graphs, the chromatic measures converge in holomorphic moments. As a corollary, for a convergent sequence of finite graphs, we prove that the normalized log of the chromatic polynomial converges to an analytic function outside a bounded disc. This generalizes a recent result of Borgs, Chayes, Kahn and Lov\'asz, who proved convergence at large enough positive integers and answers a question of Borgs. Our methods also lead to explicit estimates on the number of proper colorings of graphs with large girth.