Exact Counts of Binary Phylogenetic Networks with Four Reticulations

Abstract

Phylogenetic networks provide a flexible framework for representing reticulate evolutionary processes, such as hybridization, introgression, recombination, and horizontal gene transfer. However, their combinatorial complexity makes even basic enumeration problems difficult. Building on our previous work for networks with up to three reticulations, we derive an explicit closed-form formula for the number of unrestricted rooted binary phylogenetic networks with four reticulations on \(n\) labeled taxa. Our approach is based on tree-component graphs. We classify the 79 possible component graphs corresponding to networks with four reticulations into ten groups. We then enumerate the networks associated with each group by combining known counts of one-component networks, forests, and networks with fewer reticulations. Summing these contributions yields the desired formula. This result extends the exact enumeration of unrestricted binary phylogenetic networks to four reticulations and further demonstrates the effectiveness of component graphs for systematically organizing and counting increasingly complex network classes.