Related papers: The internally 4-connected binary matroids with no…
We exhibit several families of planar graphs that are minor-minimal intrinsically spherical $3$-linked. A graph is intrinsically spherical 3-linked if it is planar graph that has, in every spherical embedding, a non-split 3-link consisting…
A matroid is uniform if and only if it has no minor isomorphic to $U_{1,1}\oplus U_{0,1}$ and is paving if and only if it has no minor isomorphic to $U_{2,2}\oplus U_{0,1}$. This paper considers, more generally, when a matroid $M$ has no…
Let $a,b,c,d$ be four vertices in a graph $G$. A \emph{$K_4$-minor rooted} at $a,b,c,d$ consists of four pairwise-disjoint pairwise-adjacent connected subgraphs of $G$, respectively containing $a,b,c,d$. We characterise precisely when $G$…
The Tic-Tac-Toe matroid is a paving matroid of rank $5$ on 9 elements which is pseudomodular and whose dual is non-algebraic. It has been proposed as a possible example of an algebraic matroid whose dual is not algebraic. We present an…
Adding elements to matroids can be fraught with difficulty. In the V\'amos matroid $V_8$, there are four independent sets $X_1,X_2, X_3,$ and $X_4$ such that $(X_1 \cup X_2,X_3 \cup X_4)$ is a $3$-separation while exactly three of the local…
In this paper, we investigate three problems concerning the toric ideal associated to a matroid. Firstly, we list all matroids $\mathcal M$ such that its corresponding toric ideal $I_{\mathcal M}$ is a complete intersection. Secondly, we…
One characterization of binary matroids is that the symmetric difference of every pair of intersecting circuits is a disjoint union of circuits. This paper considers circuit-difference matroids, that is, those matroids in which the…
The foundation of a matroid is a canonical algebraic invariant which classifies representations of the matroid up to rescaling equivalence. Foundations of matroids are pastures, a simultaneous generalization of partial fields and…
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)…
We show that a simple rank-$r$ matroid with no $(t+1)$-element independent flat has at least as many elements as the matroid $M_{r,t}$ defined as the direct sum of $t$ binary projective geometries whose ranks pairwise differ by at most $1$.…
Let $\mathcal{N}$ be a set of matroids. A matroid $M$ is strictly $\mathcal{N}$-fragile if $M$ has a member of $\mathcal{N}$ as minor and, for all $e \in E(M)$, at least one of $M\backslash e$ and $M/e$ has no minor in $\mathcal{N}$. In…
In this note we investigate some matroid minor structure results. In particular, we present sufficient conditions, in terms of {\em triangles}, for a matroid to have either $U_{2,4}$ or $F_7$ or $M(K_5)$ as a minor.
If $\mathcal{C}$ is a minor-closed class of matroids, the class $\mathcal{C}'$ of integer polymatroids whose natural matroids are in $\mathcal{C}$ is also minor closed, as is the class $\mathcal{C}'_k$ of $k$-polymatroids in $\mathcal{C}'$.…
A partitioned matroid $(M, \{X_1,X_2,\dots,X_n\})$ consists of a matroid $M$ and a partition $\{X_1,X_2,\dots,X_n\}$ of its ground set. As such structures arise frequently in structural matroid theory, this paper introduces a general…
We show that an adjoint of a loopless matroid is connected if and only if it itself is connected. Our first goal is to study the adjoint of modular matroids. We prove that a modular matroid has only one adjoint (up to isomorphism) which can…
We use the Strong Splitter Theorem to decompose the excluded minor class of binary matroids with no $E_4$-minor. Using this theorem we can get the 3-decomposers and the extremal internally 4-connected matroids as well as any other important…
In unpublished work, Geelen proved that a matroid is near-regular if and only if it has no minor isomorphic to: U2,5; U3,5; the Fano plane and its dual; the non-Fano and its dual; the single-element deletion of AG(2,3), its dual, and the…
We prove that if M is a vertically 4-connected matroid with a modular flat X of rank at least three, then every representation of M | X over a finite field F extends to a unique F-representation of M. A corollary is that when F has order q,…
In this paper we prove two main results about obstruction to graph planarity. One is that, if $G$ is a 3-connected graph with a $K_5$-minor and $T$ is a triangle of $G$, then $G$ has a $K_5$-minor $H$, such that $E(T)\cont E(H)$. Other is…
We characterize the 3-connected members of the intersection of the class of bicircular and cobicircular matroids. Aside from some exceptional matroids with rank and corank at most 5, this class consists of just the free swirls and their…