William Tutte's Distinguished Lecture Series - Lauren K. Williams

Friday, June 5, 2020 3:30 pm - 3:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Matroids, tropical geometry, and positivity

Abstract: 

The theory of matroids -- a class of combinatorial objects which simultaneously generalize graphs as well as vectors in a vector space -- was pioneered by William Tutte in his 1948 PhD thesis. Matroids are also closely connected to the Grassmannian and the tropical Grassmannian.  In recent years, mathematicians and physicists have been exploring positive notions of all of these objects, finding applications to scattering amplitudes and shallow water waves.  In my talk I will give an introduction to matroids, tropical geometry, and positivity, and survey some of the beautiful results and applications.

Speaker

Lauren K. Williams from Harvard University

Virtual lecture

This lecture will be held virtually via Zoom. Please email Emma Watson for the meeting details.