  This paper studies the properties of two kinds of matroids: (a) algebraic
matroids and (b) finite and infinite matroids whose ground set have some
canonical symmetry, for example row and column symmetry and transposition
symmetry.
  For (a) algebraic matroids, we expose cryptomorphisms making them accessible
to techniques from commutative algebra. This allows us to introduce for each
circuit in an algebraic matroid an invariant called circuit polynomial,
generalizing the minimal poly- nomial in classical Galois theory, and studying
the matroid structure with multivariate methods.
  For (b) matroids with symmetries we introduce combinatorial invariants
capturing structural properties of the rank function and its limit behavior,
and obtain proofs which are purely combinatorial and do not assume algebraicity
of the matroid; these imply and generalize known results in some specific cases
where the matroid is also algebraic. These results are motivated by, and
readily applicable to framework rigidity, low-rank matrix completion and
determinantal varieties, which lie in the intersection of (a) and (b) where
additional results can be derived. We study the corresponding matroids and
their associated invariants, and for selected cases, we characterize the
matroidal structure and the circuit polynomials completely.
