  There has recently been ample interest in the question of which sets can be
represented by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A necessary condition is that
the set is rigidly convex, and it has been conjectured that rigid convexity is
also sufficient. To this end Helton and Vinnikov conjectured that any real zero
polynomial admits a determinantal representation with symmetric matrices. We
disprove this conjecture. By relating the question of finding LMI
representations to the problem of determining whether a polymatroid is
representable over the complex numbers, we find a real zero polynomial such
that no power of it admits a determinantal representation. The proof uses
recent results of Wagner and Wei on matroids with the half-plane property, and
the polymatroids associated to hyperbolic polynomials introduced by Gurvits.
