The positive Grassmannian, the amplituhedron, and cluster algebras

Abstract

The positive Grassmannian $Gr_{k,n}^{\geq 0}$ is the subset of the real Grassmannian where all Pl\"ucker coordinates are nonnegative. It has a beautiful combinatorial structure as well as connections to statistical physics, integrable systems, and scattering amplitudes. The amplituhedron $\mathcal{A}_{n,k,m}(Z)$ is the image of the positive Grassmannian $Gr_{k,n}^{\geq 0}$ under a positive linear map $\mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^{k+m}$. We will explain how ideas from oriented matroids, tropical geometry, and cluster algebras shed light on the structure of the positive Grassmannian and the amplituhedron.