Related papers: The Finite Matroid-Based Valuation Conjecture is F…
We show that each algebraic representation of a matroid $M$ in positive characteristic determines a matroid valuation of $M$, which we have named the {\em Lindstr\"om valuation}. If this valuation is trivial, then a linear representation of…
Morphisms of matroids are combinatorial abstractions of linear maps and graph homomorphisms. We introduce the notion of basis for morphisms of matroids, and show that its generating function is strongly log-concave. As a consequence, we…
Mason's Conjecture asserts that for an $m$--element rank $r$ matroid $\M$ the sequence $(I_k/\binom{m}{k}: 0\leq k\leq r)$ is logarithmically concave, in which $I_k$ is the number of independent $k$--sets of $\M$. A related conjecture in…
We study fair and economically efficient allocation of indivisible goods among agents whose valuations are rank functions of matroids. Such valuations constitute a well-studied class of submodular functions (i.e., they exhibit a diminishing…
We give a deterministic polynomial time $2^{O(r)}$-approximation algorithm for the number of bases of a given matroid of rank $r$ and the number of common bases of any two matroids of rank $r$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the…
We study the singular values (and Lyapunov exponents) for products of $N$ independent $n\times n$ random matrices with i.i.d. entries. Such matrix products have been extensively analyzed using free probability, which applies when $n\to…
Rota's basis conjecture, open since 1989, states that if B_1, B_2, ..., B_n are n bases of a vector space of rank n, then there is an nxn grid of vectors such that the vectors in the ith row are precisely the elements of B_i and such that…
Many important enumerative invariants of a matroid can be obtained from its Tutte polynomial, and many more are determined by two stronger invariants, the $\mathcal{G}$-invariant and the configuration of the matroid. We show that the same…
Matroid varieties are the closures in the Grassmannian of sets of points defined by specifying which Pl\"ucker coordinates vanish and which don't --- the set of nonvanishing Pl\"ucker coordinates forms a well-studied object called a…
We show that the matroid secretary problem is equivalent to correlated contention resolution in the online random-order model. Specifically, the matroid secretary conjecture is true if and only if every matroid admits an online random-order…
Matroids generalize the familiar notion of linear dependence from linear algebra. Following a brief discussion of founding work in computability and matroids, we use the techniques of reverse mathematics to determine the logical strength of…
We formulate conjectures regarding the maximum value and maximizing matrices of the permanent and of diagonal products on the set of stochastic matrices with bounded rank. We formulate equivalent conjectures on upper bounds for these…
A matroid is sticky if any two of its extensions by disjoint sets can be glued together along the common restriction (that is, they have an amalgam). The sticky matroid conjecture asserts that a matroid is sticky if and only if it is…
We conjecture that it is not possible to finitely axiomatize matroid representability in monadic second-order logic for matroids, and we describe some partial progress towards this conjecture. We present a collection of sentences in monadic…
The famous Braess paradox describes the following phenomenon: It might happen that the improvement of resources, like building a new street within a congested network, may in fact lead to larger costs for the players in an equilibrium. In…
One of the most intriguing unsolved questions of matroid optimization is the characterization of the existence of $k$ disjoint common bases of two matroids. The significance of the problem is well-illustrated by the long list of conjectures…
Let M to be a matroid defined on a finite set E. A subset L of E is locked in M if L is 2-connected in M, the complement of L is 2-connected in the dual M*, and min{r(L), r*(complement of L)} is greater than 1. In this paper, we prove that…
A greedoid is a generalization of a matroid allowing for more flexible analyses and modeling of combinatorial optimization problems. However, these structures decimate many matroid properties contributing to their pervasive nature. A…
For a matroid $M$ of rank $r$ on $n$ elements, let $b(M)$ denote the fraction of bases of $M$ among the subsets of the ground set with cardinality $r$. We show that $$\Omega(1/n)\leq 1-b(M)\leq O(\log(n)^3/n)\text{ as }n\rightarrow \infty$$…
For matroids M and N on disjoint sets S and T, a semidirect sum of M and N is a matroid K on the union of S and T that, like the direct sum and the free product, has the restriction of K to S equal to M and the contraction of K to T equal…