papers

Publications (68)

math.CO2005

Metrized graphs, electrical networks, and Fourier analysis

Matthew Baker, Xander Faber

A metrized graph is a finite weighted graph whose edges are thought of as line segments. In this expository paper, we study the Laplacian operator on a metrized graph and some impo…

math.CO2012

Chip-firing games, potential theory on graphs, and spanning trees

Matthew Baker, Farbod Shokrieh

We study the interplay between chip-firing games and potential theory on graphs, characterizing reduced divisors (-parking functions) on graphs as the solution to an energy (or…

math.CO2019

Geometric Bijections for Regular Matroids, Zonotopes, and Ehrhart Theory

Spencer Backman, Matthew Baker, Chi Ho Yuen

Let be a regular matroid. The Jacobian group of is a finite abelian group whose cardinality is equal to the number of bases of . This group generalizes th…

math.CO2007

Riemann-Roch and Abel-Jacobi theory on a finite graph

Matthew Baker, Serguei Norine

It is well-known that a finite graph can be viewed, in many respects, as a discrete analogue of a Riemann surface. In this paper, we pursue this analogy further in the context of l…

math.CO2025

The foundation of generalized parallel connections, 2-sums, and segment-cosegment exchanges of matroids

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid, Zach Walsh +1

We show that, under suitable hypotheses, the foundation of a generalized parallel connection of matroids is the relative tensor product of the foundations. Using this result, we sh…

math.CO2018

Matroids over partial hyperstructures

Matthew Baker, Nathan Bowler

We present an algebraic framework which simultaneously generalizes the notion of linear subspaces, matroids, valuated matroids, oriented matroids, and regular matroids. To do this,…

math.AG2026

Elliptic matroids and modular curves

Matthew Baker

For , let be the rank-3 matroid on whose bases are the three-element non-zero-sum subsets. Let denote the open subscheme of t…

math.NT2022

Descartes' rule of signs, Newton polygons, and polynomials over hyperfields

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid

We develop a theory of multiplicities of roots for polynomials over hyperfields and use this to provide a unified and conceptual proof of both Descartes' rule of signs and Newton's…

math.CO2021

Lift theorems for representations of matroids over pastures

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid

Pastures are a class of field-like algebraic objects which include both partial fields hyperfields and have nice categorical properties. We prove several lift theorems for represen…

math.NT2006

A lower bound for average values of dynamical Green's functions

Matthew Baker

We provide a Mahler/Elkies-style lower bound for the average values of dynamical Green's functions on the projective line over an arbitrary valued field, and give some dynamical an…

cs.IT2026

On Channel Model to Bridge the Gap between MIMO Design and Performance Requirements in 3GPP

Lynda Berrah, Raphael Visoz, Didier Le Ruyet +5

Accurate channel modeling has become critical for evaluating multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) performance, especially as 5G standardization matures and efforts toward 6G begin…

math.NT2015

Robert F. Coleman 1954-2014

Matthew Baker, Barry Mazur, Ken Ribet

Robert F. Coleman, a highly original mathematician who has had a profound influence on modern number theory and arithmetic geometry, passed away on March 24, 2014. We give an overv…

math.CO2025

Necklaces, permutations, and periodic critical orbits for quadratic polynomials

Matthew Baker, Andrea Chen, Sophie Li +1

Let denote the Gleason polynomial, whose roots correspond to parameters such that the critical point is periodic of exact period under iteration of $…

math.NT2005

Global discrepancy and small points on elliptic curves

Matthew Baker, Clayton Petsche

Let E be an elliptic curve defined over a number field k. In this paper, we define the ``global discrepancy'' of a finite set Z of algebraic points on E which in a precise sense me…

math.NT2002

Automorphisms of

Matthew Baker, Yuji Hasegawa

We determine the automorphism group of the modular curve for all prime numbers .

math.NT2002

Lower bounds for the canonical height on elliptic curves over abelian extensions

Matthew Baker

Let K be a number field and let E/K be an elliptic curve. If E has complex multiplication, we show that there is a positive lower bound for the canonical height of non-torsion poin…

math.NT2026

The sesquicentennial of the prime number

Matthew Baker

The year 2026 marks the 150th anniversary of a remarkable achievement in mathematics: in 1876, the French mathematician Édouard Lucas showed that the 39-digit number $M_{127} := 2^…

math.CO2017

The Bernardi process and torsor structures on spanning trees

Matthew Baker, Yao Wang

Let G be a ribbon graph, i.e., a connected finite graph G together with a cyclic ordering of the edges around each vertex. By adapting a construction due to O. Bernardi, we associa…

math.NT2006

A finiteness theorem for canonical heights attached to rational maps over function fields

Matthew Baker

Let K be a function field, let f be a rational function of degree d at least 2 defined over K, and suppose that f is not isotrivial. In this paper, we show that a point P in P^1(Kb…

math.AG2021

The moduli space of matroids

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid

In the first part of the paper, we clarify the connections between several algebraic objects appearing in matroid theory: both partial fields and hyperfields are fuzzy rings, fuzzy…

math.NT2006

Uniform structures and Berkovich spaces

Matthew Baker

A uniform space is a topological space together with some additional structure which allows one to make sense of uniform properties such as completeness or uniform convergence. Mot…

math.CO2024

Foundations of matroids -- Part 2: Further theory, examples, and computational methods

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid, Tianyi Zhang

In this sequel to "Foundations of matroids - Part 1", we establish several presentations of the foundation of a matroid in terms of small building blocks. For example, we show that…

math.CO2017

Hodge theory in combinatorics

Matthew Baker

George Birkhoff proved in 1912 that the number of proper colorings of a finite graph G with n colors is a polynomial in n, called the chromatic polynomial of G. Read conjectured in…

math.NT2003

Finiteness results for modular curves of genus at least 2

Matthew Baker, Enrique Gonzalez-Jimenez, Josep Gonzalez +1

A curve X over the field Q of rational numbers is modular if it is dominated by X_1(N) for some N; if in addition the image of its jacobian in J_1(N) is contained in the new subvar…

math.CO2025

Matroid bingo

Matthew Baker, Hope Dobbelaere, Brennan Fullmer +1

We investigate some natural probability distributions associated with the game of matroid bingo.

math.CO2022

On the Existence of Balanced Generalized de Bruijn Sequences

Matthew Baker, Bhumika Mittal, Haran Mouli +1

A balanced generalized de Bruijn sequence with parameters is a cyclic sequence of bits such that (a) the number of 0's equals the number of 1's, and (b) each substrin…

math.NT2004

Equidistribution of small subvarieties of an abelian variety

Matthew Baker, Su-ion Ih

We prove an equidistribution result for small subvarieties of an abelian variety which generalizes the Szpiro-Ullmo-Zhang theorem on equidistribution of small points.

math.CO2025

Lorentzian polynomials and matroids over triangular hyperfields 1: Topological aspects

Matthew Baker, June Huh, Mario Kummer +1

Lorentzian polynomials serve as a bridge between continuous and discrete convexity, connecting analysis and combinatorics. In this article, we study the topology of the space $\mat…

math.RA2020

On the structure of hyperfields obtained as quotients of fields

Matthew Baker, Tong Jin

We determine all isomorphism classes of hyperfields of a given finite order which can be obtained as quotients of finite fields of sufficiently large order. Using this result, we d…

math.NT2004

A Lower Bound for the Canonical Height on Abelian Varieties over Abelian Extensions

Matthew Baker, Joseph Silverman

Let A be an abelian variety defined over a number field K, and consider the canonical height function attached to a symmetric ample line bundle L on A. We prove that there is a pos…

math.CO2023

The Jacobian of a Sixth-Root-of-Unity Matroid

Matthew Baker, Changxin Ding, Xu Zhuang

The Jacobian group (also called the sandpile group, Picard group, or critical group) of a graph or, more generally, of a regular matroid has been well studied. Sixth-root-of-unity…

math.CO2007

Harmonic morphisms and hyperelliptic graphs

Matthew Baker, Serguei Norine

We study harmonic morphisms of graphs as a natural discrete analogue of holomorphic maps between Riemann surfaces. We formulate a graph-theoretic analogue of the classical Riemann-…

math.CO2017

Matroids over hyperfields

Matthew Baker, Nathan Bowler

We present an algebraic framework which simultaneously generalizes the notion of linear subspaces, matroids, valuated matroids, and oriented matroids. We call the resulting objects…

math.CO2014

Canonical representatives for divisor classes on tropical curves and the Matrix-Tree Theorem

Yang An, Matthew Baker, Greg Kuperberg +1

Let be a compact tropical curve (or metric graph) of genus . Using the theory of tropical theta functions, Mikhalkin and Zharkov proved that there is a canonical effective…

math.NT2005

Equidistribution of small points, rational dynamics, and potential theory

Matthew Baker, Robert Rumely

If phi(z) is a rational function on P^1 of degree at least 2 with coefficients in a number field k, we compute the homogeneous transfinite diameter of the v-adic filled Julia sets…

math.NT2004

Canonical Heights, Transfinite Diameters, and Polynomial Dynamics

Matthew Baker, Liang-Chung Hsia

Let phi(z) be a polynomial of degree at least 2 with coefficients in a number field K. Iterating phi gives rise to a dynamical system and a corresponding canonical height function,…

math.DS2013

Special curves and postcritically-finite polynomials

Matthew Baker, Laura DeMarco

We study the postcritically-finite (PCF) maps in the moduli space of complex polynomials . For a certain class of rational curves in , we characte…

math.DS2010

Preperiodic points and unlikely intersections

Matthew Baker, Laura DeMarco

In this article, we combine complex-analytic and arithmetic tools to study the preperiodic points of one-dimensional complex dynamical systems. We show that for any fixed complex n…

math.AG2014

On the structure of nonarchimedean analytic curves

Matthew Baker, Sam Payne, Joseph Rabinoff

Let K be an algebraically closed, complete nonarchimedean field and let X be a smooth K-curve. In this paper we elaborate on several aspects of the structure of the Berkovich analy…

math.CO2026

A modern perspective on Tutte's homotopy theorem

Matthew Baker, Tong Jin, Oliver Lorscheid

We begin with a review of Tutte's homotopy theory, which concerns the structure of certain graph associated to a matroid (together with some extra data). Concretely, Tutte's path t…

math.AG2014

Lifting harmonic morphisms II: tropical curves and metrized complexes

Omid Amini, Matthew Baker, Erwan Brugallé +1

In this paper we prove several lifting theorems for morphisms of tropical curves. We interpret the obstruction to lifting a finite harmonic morphism of augmented metric graphs to a…

math.CO2023

On a theorem of Lafforgue

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid

We give a new proof, along with some generalizations, of a folklore theorem (attributed to Laurent Lafforgue) that a rigid matroid (i.e., a matroid with indecomposable basis polyto…

math.AG2015

Weight functions on Berkovich curves

Matthew Baker, Johannes Nicaise

Let be a curve over a complete discretely valued field . We give tropical descriptions of the weight function attached to a pluricanonical form on and the essential skel…

math.NT2002

Galois theory and torsion points on curves

Matthew Baker, Kenneth A. Ribet

In this paper, we survey some Galois-theoretic techniques for studying torsion points on curves. In particular, we give new proofs of some results of A. Tamagawa and the present au…

math.AG2013

The skeleton of the Jacobian, the Jacobian of the skeleton, and lifting meromorphic functions from tropical to algebraic curves

Matthew Baker, Joseph Rabinoff

Let K be an algebraically closed field which is complete with respect to a nontrivial, non-Archimedean valuation and let Λbe its value group. Given a smooth, proper, connected K-c…

math.CO2026

The Jacobian of a regular orthogonal matroid and torsor structures on spanning quasi-trees of ribbon graphs

Matthew Baker, Changxin Ding, Donggyu Kim

Previous work of Chan--Church--Grochow and Baker--Wang shows that the set of spanning trees in a plane graph is naturally a torsor for the Jacobian group of . Informally, th…

math.AG2014

Lifting harmonic morphisms I: metrized complexes and Berkovich skeleta

Omid Amini, Matthew Baker, Erwan Brugallé +1

Let K be an algebraically closed, complete non-Archimedean field. The purpose of this paper is to carefully study the extent to which finite morphisms of algebraic K-curves are con…

math.NT2004

Analysis and dynamics on the Berkovich projective line

Robert Rumely, Matthew Baker

This is a set of expanded lecture notes from the Berkovich Space seminar held at the University of Georgia during Spring, 2004. The purpose of the notes is to provide a non-technic…

math.CO2005

Harmonic analysis on metrized graphs

Matthew Baker, Robert Rumely

We study the Laplacian on a metrized graph, and its eigenfunctions.

math.CO2022

Fusion rules for pastures and tracts

Matthew Baker, Tianyi Zhang

Baker and Bowler defined a category of algebraic objects called tracts which generalize both partial fields and hyperfields. They also defined a notion of weak and strong matroids…

math.HO2006

Uncountable sets and an infinite real number game

Matthew Baker

We give a short proof of the well-known fact that the unit interval [0,1] is uncountable by means of a simple infinite game. We also show using this game that a (non-empty) perfect…

math.CO2025

On some notions of rank for matrices over tracts

Matthew Baker, Noah Solomon, Tianyi Zhang

Given a tract in the sense of Baker and Bowler and a matrix with entries in , we define several notions of rank for . In this way, we are able to unify and find conce…

math.CO2023

Representability of orthogonal matroids over partial fields

Matthew Baker, Tong Jin

Let be nonnegative integers, and let . For a matroid of rank on the finite set and a partial field in the sense of Sempl…

cs.IT2024

5G NR Positioning Enhancements in 3GPP Release-18

Hyun-Su Cha, Gilsoo Lee, Amitava Ghosh +3

New radio (NR) positioning in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 18 (Rel-18) enables 5G-advanced networks to achieve ultra-high accuracy positioning without de…

math.NT2023

Reciprocity via Reciprocants

Matthew Baker

The determinant of a skew-symmetric matrix has a canonical square root given by the Pfaffian. Similarly, the resultant of two reciprocal polynomials of even degree has a canonical…

math.AG2015

Nonarchimedean geometry, tropicalization, and metrics on curves

Matthew Baker, Sam Payne, Joseph Rabinoff

We develop a number of general techniques for comparing analytifications and tropicalizations of algebraic varieties. Our basic results include a projection formula for tropical mu…

math.AG2013

Linear series on metrized complexes of algebraic curves

Omid Amini, Matthew Baker

A metrized complex of algebraic curves is a finite metric graph together with a collection of marked complete nonsingular algebraic curves, one for each vertex, the marked points b…

math.AG2025

New building blocks for -geometry: bands and band schemes

Matthew Baker, Tong Jin, Oliver Lorscheid

We develop and study a generalization of commutative rings called bands, along with the corresponding geometric theory of band schemes. Bands generalize both hyperrings, in the sen…

math.NT2026

Zolotarev's Magical Proof of Quadratic Reciprocity

Matthew Baker

We present a creative reimagining of Zolotarev's classical proof of the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity.

math.NT2005

A finiteness property of torsion points

Matthew Baker, Su-Ion Ih, Robert Rumely

Let k be a number field, let E/k be an elliptic curve, and let S be a finite set of places of k contianing the archimedean places. Let F be an algebraic closure of k. We prove that…

math.AG2015

Degeneration of Linear Series From the Tropical Point of View and Applications

Matthew Baker, David Jensen

In this survey, we discuss linear series on tropical curves and their relation to classical algebraic geometry, describe the main techniques of the subject, and survey some of the…

cs.IT2026

Contrastive Predictive Coding with Compression for Enhanced Channel State Feedback in Wireless Networks

Ahmed Y. Radwan, Fahad Syed Muhammad, Matthew Baker +1

Accurate and timely channel state information (CSI) is essential for next-generation wireless systems, yet existing works treat CSI compression and CSI prediction as separate probl…

cs.DL2025

The Reproducible Research Platform establishes a unified open science environment bridging data and software lifecycles across disciplines, from proposal to publication

Andreas P. Cuny, Henry Lütcke, Andrei-Valentin Plamadă +5

Many research groups aspire to make data and code FAIR and reproducible, yet struggle because the data and code life cycles are disconnected, executable environments are often miss…

math.NT2007

Specialization of linear systems from curves to graphs

Matthew Baker

We investigate the interplay between linear systems on curves and graphs in the context of specialization of divisors on an arithmetic surface. We also provide some applications of…

math.CO2025

Representation theory for polymatroids

Matthew Baker, June Huh, Donggyu Kim +2

We develop a theory of representations of (discrete) polymatroids over tracts in terms of Plücker coordinates and suitable Plücker relations. As special cases, we recover polymat…

math.CO2020

Foundations of matroids I: Matroids without large uniform minors

Matthew Baker, Oliver Lorscheid

The foundation of a matroid is a canonical algebraic invariant which classifies representations of the matroid up to rescaling equivalence. Foundations of matroids are pastures, a…

math.CO2026

Lorentzian polynomials and matroids over triangular hyperfields 2: Analytic aspects

Matthew Baker, June Huh, Mario Kummer +1

Brändén 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 polyn…

math.AG2010

Metric Properties of the Tropical Abel-Jacobi Map

Matthew Baker, Xander Faber

Let X be a tropical curve (or metric graph), and fix a base point p on X. We define the Jacobian group J(G) of a finite weighted graph G, and show that the Jacobian J(X) is canonic…