On the independent subsets of powers of paths and cycles

Abstract: In the first part of this work we provide a formula for the number of edges of the Hasse diagram of the independent subsets of the h-th power of a path ordered by inclusion. For h=1 such a value is the number of edges of a Fibonacci cube. We show that, in general, the number of edges of the diagram is obtained by convolution of a Fibonacci-like sequence with itself. In the second part we consider the case of cycles. We evaluate the number of edges of the Hasse diagram of the independent subsets of the h-th power of a cycle ordered by inclusion. For h=1, and n>1, such a value is the number of edges of a Lucas cube.