Isotropic matroids I: Multimatroids and neighborhoods

Several properties of the isotropic matroid of a looped simple graph are presented. Results include a characterization of the multimatroids that are associated with isotropic matroids and several ways in which the isotropic matroid of G incorporates information about graphs locally equivalent to G. Specific results of the latter type include a characterization of graphs that are locally equivalent to bipartite graphs, a direct proof that two forests are isomorphic if and only if their isotropic matroids are isomorphic, and a way to express local equivalence indirectly, using only edge pivots.