Pure Maths Colloquium: Yoav Len

Chip-firing is a single player game played on the vertices of a graph. The possible outcomes of the game reflect graph invariants such as gonality and complexity. It was recently discovered that there is a deep connection between chip-firing and algebraic geometry, and that the game may be used to encode geometric properties of algebraic curves. This approach has already led to new results in algebraic geometry and solutions to various open problems. In my talk, I will explain the rules of the game, and explore the interactions between winning strategies, the geometry of graphs and curves, and Kircchof’s matrix tree theorem.