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Organizers: Laura Anderson and Thomas Zaslavsky.

Meetings on Wednesdays, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m., in LN-2206.

All are invited. This will be a very elementary introduction to the basics of matroids, based on James Oxley, Matroid Theory, second edition. Zaslavsky hopes to teach a course on matroid theory in the spring; this could be (optional) preparation for it.

Wednesday, September 5
Jackie Kaminski
Ch. 1, Sect. 1: Definitions by independent sets and by circuits. The main examples (1): Vector matroids.

Wednesday, September 12
Jackie Kaminski
Ch. 1, Sect. 1: The main examples (2): Graphic matroids.
Simon Joyce
Ch. 1, Sect. 2: Definition by bases.

Wednesday, September 19
Simon Joyce
Ch. 1, Sect. 2: Definition by bases.

Wednesday, October 3
Kaitlin Reissig
Ch. 1, Sect. 3: Definition by and properties of rank.

Wednesday, October 10
Alex Schaefer
Ch. 1, Sect. 4: Definition by and properties of closure.

Wednesday, October 17
Alex Schaefer
Ch. 1, Sect. 4: Properties of closure.

Wednesday, October 24
Tom Zaslavsky
Ch. 1, Sect. 5: Small examples and geometrical drawings. (Emphasis on affine representation and on projective and affine geometries over tiny fields.)

Wednesday, October 31
Jackie Kaminski
Ch. 1, Sect. 7: The lattice of flats.

Wednesday, November 7
Jackie Kaminski
Ch. 1, Sect. 7: The lattice of flats: more!

Wednesday, November 14
Tom Zaslavsky
Why matroids? Or, what is matroid theory about? (With a quick explanation of orthogonal duality of vector configurations vis-á-vis matroid duality.)

Wednesday, November 21
(Thanksgiving holiday)

Wednesday, November 28
Simon Lepkin
Ch. 1, Sect. 6: The main examples (3): Transversal matroids.

Wednesday, December 5
Craig DeFelice
Ch. 2, Sect. 1, first half: Duality (part 1).

Wednesday, December 12

Ch. 2, Sect. 1, second half: Duality (part 2).
Ch. 2, Sect. 2: Duality (part 3).

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