Basis shape loci and the positive Grassmannian

Publication date 30 April 2019

Grassmannians, Schubert varieties, flag manifolds (14M15) Combinatorial aspects of matroids and geometric lattices (05B35) Algebraic combinatorics (05E99)

Abstract: A basis shape locus takes as input data a zero/nonzero pattern in an

n i m e s k

matrix, which is equivalent to a presentation of a transversal matroid. The locus is defined as the set of points in the Grassmannian of

k

planes in

m a t h b b R^{n}

which are the row space of a matrix with the prescribed zero/nonzero pattern. We show that this locus depends only on the transversal matroid, not on the specific presentation. When a transversal matroid is a positroid, the closure of its basis shape locus is the associated positroid variety. We give a sufficient, and conjecturally necessary, condition for when a transversal matroid is a positroid. Finally, we discus applications to two programs for computing scattering amplitudes in

m a t h c a l N = 4

SYM theory: one trying to prove that projections of certain positroid cells triangulate the amplituhedron, and another using Wilson loop diagrams.

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