Student Combinatorics Seminar

Matroids are a combinatorial structure that allow us to generalize linear independence and dependence to other objects. Major motivating examples come from graphs, where a matroid can be explicitly defined using a graph's cycles. We will explore several equivalent definitions of matroids, and translate tools in the context of vector spaces to tools we can use to study matroids. This talk will be accessible to all graduate students, and will serve as an introduction to Matroids in anticipation of Will Dana's talk next week on representability of Matroids. Speaker(s): Alana Huszar (UM)