Graphs and Matroids Seminar - David Wagner

Title: Spanning trees and electrical networks... and what about matroids?

Abstract:

The relevance of spanning trees to the theory of electrifcal networks goes all the way back to Kirchhoff in 1847. In the first part of the talk I will sketch the combinatorial side of this theory, concentrating on two main results: the All-Minors Matrix-Tree Theorem (19th century), and the Transfer Current Theorem (1993). In the second part of the talk I will consider to what degree various parts of the theory can be extended to larger classes of matroids.