Putting the Volume Back in Volume Polynomial

Recent work by Adiprasito, Huh, and Katz developed the theory of Chow rings of matroids which led to proofs of long-standing conjectures in combinatorics. The Chow ring is determined by an algebraically defined "volume" polynomial, although its name reflects its geometric origins. This talk will discuss algebraic and geometric ways to define volume of a fan, using matroids as a ✨ guiding light ✨ .