SEMINAR: Groups and Combinatorics Seminar, Chromatic roots of graphs and matroids

Gordon Royle (UWA)

will speak on

Chromatic roots of graphs and matroids

at 3pm Friday May the 23rd in Weatherburn Lecture Theatre.

Abstract:

The location of the real and/or complex roots of the chromatic polynomial of a graph has been studied for many years, both by combinatorial mathematicians and statistical physicists, yet despite this many fundamental questions remain unsolved. And even though the chromatic polynomial is most generally a matroidal concept, very little indeed is known about the location of chromatic roots of matroids that are not graphic or cographic. In this talk, I will present a necessarily-personal survey of the major results and my favourite open problems in this area.