FRG: Collaborative Research: Matroids, Graphs, and Algebraic Geometry

Recent advances in matroid and graph theory fuse the methods of combinatorics with concepts from algebraic geometry to resolve longstanding conjectures and provide deep insights into widespread phenomena such as unimodality and log concavity of integer sequences. The influences between combinatorics and algebraic geometry flow fruitfully in both directions; combinatorial constructions such as graph complexes have recently led to resolutions of long-standing conjectures in the geometry of moduli spaces of curves.

The PIs will join forces and forge timely new collaborations to address the most pressing open problems at the interface between matroids, graphs, and algebraic geometry. The project includes the participation of graduate students and postdocs.

This focused research group will build on recent breakthroughs to accomplish the following goals: 1. Study matroidal generalizations of Kontsevich’s graph complex and pursue applications to the top weight cohomology of moduli spaces of abelian varieties; 2. Investigate K-theoretic analogs of the Chow ring of a matroid, with a view toward a matroidal analog of the Hecke algebra and applications to matroidal Kazhdan-Lusztig theory; 3.

Prove a categorification of the Hodge-Riemann bilinear relations in the presence of a finite group action, and pursue equivariant log concavity for the characteristic polynomial of a matroid with automorphisms; 4. Use methods inspired by the hard Lefschetz theorem to attack both the Welsh conjecture on the number of isomorphism classes of matroids of given size and rank and the Harary edge reconstruction conjecture for graphs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.