English

Matroids denser than a clique

Combinatorics 2016-04-18 v2

Abstract

The growth-rate function for a minor-closed class M\mathcal{M} of matroids is the function hh where, for each non-negative integer rr, h(r)h(r) is the maximum number of elements of a simple matroid in M\mathcal{M} with rank at most rr. The Growth-Rate Theorem of Geelen, Kabell, Kung, and Whittle shows, essentially, that the growth-rate function is always either linear, quadratic, exponential, or infinite. Morover, if the growth-rate function is quadratic, then h(r)(r+12)h(r)\ge \binom{r+1}{2}, with the lower bound coming from the fact that such classes necessarily contain all graphic matroids. We characterise the classes that satisfy h(r)=(r+12)h(r) = \binom{r+1}{2} for all sufficiently large rr.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.0777,
  title  = {Matroids denser than a clique},
  author = {Jim Geelen and Peter Nelson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.0777},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T05:46:42.187Z