Related papers: Matroid 3-connectivity and branch width

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…

Let $G$ be a finite connected graph, and let $T$ be a spanning tree of $G$ chosen uniformly at random. The work of Kirchhoff on electrical networks can be used to show that the events $e_1 \in T$ and $e_2 \in T$ are negatively correlated…

Consider a linear realization of a matroid over a field. One associates with it a configuration polynomial and a symmetric bilinear form with linear homogeneous coefficients. The corresponding configuration hypersurface and its non-smooth…

A 1965 result of Crapo shows that every elementary lift of a matroid $M$ can be constructed from a linear class of circuits of $M$. In a recent paper, Walsh generalized this construction by defining a rank-$k$ lift of a matroid $M$ given a…

We provide two new proofs of a theorem of Cooper, Long and Reid which asserts that, apart from an explicit finite list of exceptional manifolds, any compact orientable irreducible 3-manifold with non-empty boundary has large fundamental…

The singleton and doubleton minors of a polymatroid $\rho$ encode a surprising amount of information about the structural complexity of $\rho$. Given any polymatroid $\rho$, we can subtract from it a maximally-separated polymatroid,…

We show that if X is a minimal length carrier graph in a hyperbolic 3-manifold, M, then if X contains a sufficiently short edge, it must contain a short circuit, as well. The meaning of "short" depends only on the rank of the fundamental…

We show that if a graph is k-edge-connected, and we adjoin to it another graph satisfying a "contracted diameter less or equal to 2" condition, with minimal degree greater or equal to k, and some natural hypothesis on the edges connecting…

In mathematics and computer science, connectivity is one of the basic concepts of matroid theory: it asks for the minimum number of elements which need to be removed to disconnect the remaining nodes from each other. It is closely related…

Given a matroid $M=(E,{\cal I})$, and a total ordering over the elements $E$, a broken circuit is a circuit where the smallest element is removed and an NBC independent set is an independent set in ${\cal I}$ with no broken circuit. The set…

Let $u(K)$ and $g(K)$ denote the unknotting number and the genus of a knot $K$, respectively. For a 3-braid knot $K$, we show that $u(K)\le g(K)$ holds, and that if $u(K)=g(K)$ then $K$ is either a 2-braid knot, a connected sum of two…

We give the following extension of Barany's colorful Caratheodory theorem: Let M be an oriented matroid and N a matroid with rank function r, both defined on the same ground set V and satisfying rank(M) < rank(N). If every subset A of V…

For a set of matroids $\mathcal{M}$, let $ex_\mathcal{M}(n)$ be the maximum size of a simple rank-$n$ matroid in $\mathcal{M}$. We prove that, for any finite field $\mathbb{F}$, if $\mathcal{M}$ is a minor-closed class of…

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…

We show that, if $M$ is a simple rank-$n$ matroid with no $\ell$-point line minor and no minor isomorphic to the cycle matroid of a $t$-vertex complete graph, then the ratio $|M| / n$ is bounded above by a singly exponential function of…

Mader [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 40 (1986) 152-158] proved that every $k$-edge-connected graph $G$ with minimum degree at least $k+1$ contains a vertex $u$ such that $G-\{u\}$ is still $k$-edge-connected. In this paper, we prove that every…

We prove that there is a knot $K$ transverse to $\xi_{std}$, the tight contact structure of $S^3$, such that every contact 3-manifold $(M, \xi)$ can be obtained as a contact covering branched along $K$. By contact covering we mean a map…

We show that, if $k$ and $\ell$ are positive integers and $r$ is sufficiently large, then the number of rank-$k$ flats in a rank-$r$ matroid $M$ with no $U_{2,\ell+2}$-minor is less than or equal to number of rank-$k$ flats in a rank-$r$…

We show that for pairs $(Q,R)$ and $(S,T)$ of disjoint subsets of vertices of a graph $G$, if $G$ is sufficiently large, then there exists a vertex $v$ in $V(G)-(Q\cup R\cup S\cup T)$ such that there are two ways to reduce $G$ by a…

We construct oriented matroids of rank 3 on 13 points whose realization spaces are disconnected. They are defined on smaller points than the known examples with this property. Moreover, we construct the one on 13 points whose realization…