Graph-theoretic independence as a predictor of fullerene stability

The independence number of the graph of a fullerene, the size of the largest set of vertices such that no two are adjacent (corresponding to the largest set of atoms of the molecule, no pair of which are bonded), appears to be a useful selector in identifying stable fullerene isomers. The experimentally characterized isomers with 60, 70 and 76 atoms uniquely minimize this number among the classes of possible structures with, respectively, 60, 70 and 76 atoms. Other experimentally characterized isomers also rank extremely low with respect to this invariant. These findings were initiated by a conjecture of the computer program Graffiti.