University of Northern Iowa Department of Mathematics



Title: The Pfaffian Matrix-tree Theorem

Speaker: Scott Hirschman

ABSTRACT



Kirchoff's celebrated Matrix-Tree Theorem gives a determinant counting spanning trees in a graph. Recently Masbaum and Vaintrob proved an analogue of the Matrix-Tree Theorem giving a Pfaffian that enumerates spanning trees in a 3-uniform hypergraph.  At the University of Minnesota Research Experience for Undergraduates, Vic Reiner and myself created another proof of this pfaffian version of the matrix-tree theorem by way of sign-reversing involution.