Description
Mathematics Colloquium
Time & Date: 4pm, 24th October
Venue: Ramanujan Hall
Speaker: Trygve Johnsen
Title: An introduction to codes and matroids
Abstract: In this talk we will tell what the purpose of an error-correcting code is, and we will in particular study linear codes. We will relate some of the most important properties of such codes with those of another class of mathematical objects, namely matroids. These are objects that arise in a natural way, either from undirected (multi)graphs, or, as the name indicates, from matrices. Furthermore, if time permits, we will sketch briefly how algebraic geometry over finite fields enter the picture when defining and producing codes with good properties.