Colloquium – Talk by Dr. Matthew Baker (Georgia Institute of Technology): April 2, 2026
April 2, 2026 (Thursday), 4:10-5:00 PM SC 5211
Dr. Matthew Baker– Georgia Institute of Technology
Matroids with coefficients and Lorentzian polynomials
In the first part of the talk, I will briefly survey the theory of matroids with coefficients, which was
introduced by Andreas Dress and Walter Wenzel in the 1980s and refined by the speaker and Nathan Bowler in 2016. This theory provides a unification of vector subspaces, matroids, valuated matroids, and oriented matroids. Then, in the second part, I will outline an intriguing connection between Lorentzian polynomials, as defined by Petter Brändén and June Huh, and matroids with coefficients. The second part of the talk represents joint work with June Huh, Mario Kummer, and Oliver Lorscheid.