The homotopy type of the matroid Grassmannian

In this thesis, I establish a homotopy equivalence between the matroid Grassmannian [parallel] MacP(k, n) [parallel] and the real Grassmannian G(k, n) of k-planes in [Real set]n. This is accomplished by finding a Schubert stratification of the former space and analyzing its relationship to the ordinary Schubert cell decomposition of the Grassmannian. Since the classifying spaces for rank k matroid bundles and rank k vector bundles are, respectively, obtained by taking colimits of the above spaces as n grows, this result provides a natural equivalence between the functors of matroid bundles and vector bundles. This, in turn, has implications for the interplay between combinatorics and topology, particularly concerning the Gelfand-MacPherson combinatorial formula for rational Pontrjagin classes.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Biss, Daniel Kálmán, 1977-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael J. Hopkins.

• Mathematics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8400

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8400