DMS Combinatorics Seminar

Speaker: Zach Walsh (Georgia Tech/Auburn)

Title: New lift matroids for gain graphs

Abstract: Given a graph G with edges labeled by a group, a construction of Zaslavsky gives a rank-1 lift of the graphic matroid of G that respects the group labeling. For which finite groups can we construct a rank-t lift of the graphic matroid of G with t > 1 that respects the group labeling? We show that this is possible if and only if the group is the additive group of a non-prime finite field. We assume no knowledge of matroid theory.

This is joint work with Daniel Bernstein.