Monday, February 6, 2012
4:00 pm
347 Classroom Building
(Note change in location)

Abstract:

Zonotopal algebra is the study of a family of pairs of dual vector spaces of multivariate polynomials that can be associated with a list of vectors. It connects objects from combinatorics (e.g. matroids), discrete geometry (hyperplane arrangements, zonotopes), approximation theory (box splines) and algebra.

Mason conjectured in 1972 that the f-vector of a matroid complex is log-concave.

In this talk I will give an introduction to zonotopal algebra, explain its connections to matroid theory and prove Mason's conjecture for realizable matroids.