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Matthew Baker

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Preprint Jul 2026

Lorentzian polynomials and matroids over triangular hyperfields 2: Analytic aspects

Br\"and\'en and Huh showed that Lorentzian polynomials unify Hodge-Riemann relations in combinatorics: their supports are M-convex, and every M-convex set supports a Lorentzian polynomial. Baker, Huh, Kummer, and Lorscheid later proved that, for every $q>0$, the projectivized space $\mathbf{P}\operatorname{L}_J$ of Lorentzian polynomials with support $J$ is homeomorphic to the thin Schubert cell $\operatorname{Gr}^{\mathrm{w}}_J(\mathbb{T}_q)$ of weak representations of $J$ over the generalized triangular hyperfield $\mathbb{T}_q$. We study the quantitative relation between Lorentzian polynomials and representations over triangular hyperfields. For every matroid $M$, we prove that some $q>0$ depending on $M$ satisfies $\operatorname{Gr}^{\mathrm{w}}_M(\mathbb{T}_q)\subseteq\mathbf{P}\operatorname{L}_M\subseteq\operatorname{Gr}^{\mathrm{w}}_M(\mathbb{T}_2)$. Thus $\mathbf{P}\operatorname{L}_M$ lies between two thin Schubert cells, each homeomorphic to it. More generally, for every M-convex set $J$, some $q>0$ depending on $J$ satisfies $\operatorname{N}\operatorname{Gr}^{\mathrm{w}}_J(\mathbb{T}_q)\subseteq\mathbf{P}\operatorname{L}_J\subseteq\operatorname{N}\operatorname{Gr}^{\mathrm{w}}_J(\mathbb{T}_2)$, where $\operatorname{N}$ denotes normalization. We also study $q(M):=\sup\{q>0:\operatorname{Gr}^{\mathrm{w}}_M(\mathbb{T}_q)\subseteq\mathbf{P}\operatorname{L}_M\}$. For $q(n):=q(U_{2,n})$, we prove $q(4)=2$ and $q(5)=\log_2 3$, with matching upper and lower bounds of order $1/n$; hence $q(n)=\Theta(1/n)$, so in particular no universal positive lower bound for $q(n)$ exists.

Matthew Baker, June Huh, Mario Kummer et al. · 2 citations · ⚡2
Preprint Aug 2026

Elliptic matroids and modular curves

For $n\geq 4$, let $T_n$ be the rank-3 matroid on $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ whose bases are the three-element non-zero-sum subsets. Let $X_1(n)^\circ$ denote the open subscheme of the modular curve $X_1(n)$ obtained by removing the cusps corresponding to reducible N\'eron polygons. For $n \geq 10$, we give a purely algebraic and incidence-theoretic proof that, for every field $k$ with $\mathrm{char}(k)$ not dividing $n$, there is a natural bijection between $X_1(n)^\circ(k)$ and rescaling classes of $k$-realizations of $T_n$. For $k = \mathbb{C}$, this recovers a theorem of Borisov and Roulleau. We then upgrade the field-valued correspondence to an isomorphism of schemes over $\mathbb{Z}[1/n]$. The main new ingredient is a deformation-theoretic argument which allows us to verify the isomorphism on points valued in Artinian local rings. As consequences, the modular curve $X_1(n)^\circ$ acquires a natural model over $\mathbb{Z}[1/n]$ as a matroid realization space, and, for primes $p \geq 11$, the non-representability of $T_p$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ is equivalent to the prime-order case of Mazur's celebrated theorem on rational torsion points of elliptic curves. In an appendix, we explain how to upgrade the realization space of a matroid from an affine scheme over $\mathbb{Z}$ to an affine band scheme (in the sense of Baker-Jin-Lorscheid) over $\mathbb{F}_1^{\pm}$.

Matthew Baker · 0 citations

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