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Discrete CATS Seminar

Date:
-
Location:
POT 745
Speaker(s) / Presenter(s):
Katie Gedeon

Title: Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of thagomizer graphs Abstract: To a graph G, one can associate a polynomial with non-negative integer coefficients called the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of G. More generally, you can obtain the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of any matroid, but today we will focus on the specialization to graphs. The Kazhdan-Lusztig theory for matroids was developed in analogy with the classical theory for Coxeter groups, though there are some important differences which I will touch on lightly. In this talk, we will construct the defining recursion for the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of thagomizer graphs and use this obtain a closed form for the coefficients of the polynomial. No prior knowledge of matroids or Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials will be assumed.