Thierry Lévy (Paris 6)

Quantum spanning forests

Abstract:
I will report on a work in progress with Adrien Kassel (ENS Lyon) about an extension of Kirchhoff’s matrix-tree theorem and determinantal point processes, to the framework of vector bundles over graphs. While trying to understand in combinatorial terms the determinant of the covariant Laplacian on the space of sections of a vector bundle over a graph endowed with a connection, we were led to the definition of a family of probability measures on the Grassmannian of a Euclidean or Hermitian space, associated with an orthogonal splitting of this space and a self-adjoint contraction on it. This family of measures contains and extends the family of determinantal point processes.