Higher determinants and the matrix-tree theorem

Abstract

The classical matrix-tree theorem was discovered by G.~Kirchhoff in 1847. It relates the principal minor of the Laplace (nxn)-matrix to a particular sum of monomials indexed by the set of trees with n vertices. The aim of this paper is to present a generalization of the (nonsymmetric) matrix-tree theorem containing no trees and essentially no matrices. Instead of trees we consider acyclic directed graphs with a prescribed set of sinks, and instead of determinant, a polynomial invariant of the matrix determined by directed graph such that any two vertices of the same connected component are mutually reacheable.

arXiv commentMost of the material, with better proofs, was superseded by the later preprint http://arxiv.org/abs/1612.03873 ; take it instead