Combinatorics Seminar-Equations for Matroid Varieties

Title: Equations for Matroid Varieties
Speaker: Will Traves, USNA
Date and time: Thursday, October 17, 2:15–3:15pm
Place: Phillips 110

Abstract: Gelfand, Goresky, Macpherson and Serganova defined a matroid stratification of the Grassmannian. Matroid varieties, the closure of cells of the stratification, are only partially understood. Even finding equations that vanish on the varieties can be challenging. In this talk, I'll show how to find some equations when the matroid comes from combinatorial arrangements with a very geometric character. The talk will be pitched at an accessible level. This is joint work with Ashley Wheeler and Jessica Sidman (both at Mount Holyoke College).