Detachable pairs in $3$-connected matroids and simple $3$-connected graphs
Combinatorics
2025-09-15 v2
Abstract
Let be a -connected matroid. A pair in is detachable if or is -connected. Williams (2015) proved that if has at least 13 elements, then at least one of the following holds: has a detachable pair, has a -element circuit or cocircuit, or is a spike. We address the case where has a -element circuit or cocircuit, to obtain a characterisation of when a matroid with at least 13 elements has a detachable pair. As a consequence, we characterise when a simple -connected graph with has a pair of edges such that or is simple and -connected.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2409.13834,
title = {Detachable pairs in $3$-connected matroids and simple $3$-connected graphs},
author = {Nick Brettell and Charles Semple and Gerry Toft},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.13834},
year = {2025}
}