Title: Motivic manifestations of matroids

Abstract: A matroid is a combinatorial object which abstracts the notion of (linear or algebraic) "independence. Recent work of Adiprasito-Huh-Katz demonstrates a surprising connection to algebraic geometry: every matroid possesses a cohomology ring'' which behaves like the Chow ring of a smooth projective variety. In this talk, I will define another "algebro-geometric'' matroid invariant, the motivic zeta function of a matroid. I will assume no prior knowledge of matroids or motivic zeta functions. This is work in progress with Jeremy Usatine.