Algebraic and geometric aspects of matroids

Special session #1A of the Fall 2011 meeting of the Southeast Section of the AMS

Matroids have gained prominence in many algebraic and geometric contexts. They have also made appearances in optimization theory, combinatorial commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, discrete geometry, combinatorial Hopf algebras, and so forth; these have all made contributions to matroid theory, and it has inspired new questions in these areas in turn. One viewpoint of particular interest is that of matroids as polytopes, providing both a useful perspective on matroid theory and an example of a class of polytopes worthy of study in and of themselves. Our objectives in this special session are to bring together researchers, including new researchers, whose work has bearing on matroids in algebra and geometry, and to call attention to recent results and open problems with an eye to new collaborations.

• Sat 8:30: Tamás Kálmán, Tokyo Institute of Technology: Tutte's polynomial for hypergraphs and polymatroids
  
• Sat 9:00: Matthew Stamps, University of California, Davis: On weak maps and Whitney numbers of matroids
  
• Sat 9:30: June Huh, University of Illinois: Characteristic polynomials and the Bergman fan of matroids
  
• Sat 10:00: Matthias Lenz, Technische Universität Berlin: Zonotopal algebra, power ideals, and log-concavity
  
• Sat 10:30: Nan Li, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: External zonotopal algebra
  
• Sat 14:30: Joseph Bonin, George Washington University: The excluded minors for lattice path matroids
  
• Sat 15:00: Jay Schweig, University of Kansas: Algebraic properties of lattice path matroids and polymatroids
  
• Sat 15:30: Hoda Bidkhori, North Carolina State University: Lattice path matroid polytopes
  
• Sat 16:00: David Haws, University of Kentucky: Volumes and tangent cones of matroid polytopes
  
• Sat 16:30: Felipe Rincon, University of California, Berkeley: Isotropical linear spaces and valuated delta-matroids
  
• Sun 9:00: Emanuele Delucchi, University of Bremen: Complex matroids
  
• Sun 9:30: Amanda Ruiz, Binghamton University: Realizations of complex matroids
  
• Sun 10:00: Andrew Berget, University of California, Davis: On projective equivalence classes of matrices
  
• Sun 10:30: Allen Knutson, Cornell University: Positroids, shifting, and a combinatorial Vakil's "geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule"
  
• Sun 11:00: Fabrizio Zanello, Michigan Technological University: Stanley's matroid h-vector conjecture in low rank