Rota’s conjecture, the missing axiom, and prime cycles in toric varieties

Abstract

Rota’s conjecture predicts that the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of a matroid form a log-concave sequence. I will outline a proof for representable matroids using Milnor numbers and the Bergman fan. The same approach to the conjecture in the general case (for possibly non-representable matroids) leads to several intriguing questions on higher codimension algebraic cycles in toric varieties.