Related papers: Strong Splitter Theorem

In this sequel to "Foundations of matroids - Part 1", we establish several presentations of the foundation of a matroid in terms of small building blocks. For example, we show that the foundation of a matroid M is the colimit of the…

The classical Whitney's 2-Isomorphism Theorem describes the families of graphs having the same cycle matroid. In this paper we describe the families of graphs having the same truncated cycle matroid and prove, in particular, that every…

We present a simple proof of the fact that the base (and independence) polytope of a rank $n$ regular matroid over $m$ elements has an extension complexity $O(mn)$.

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…

A Steiner triple system is a set $S$ together with a collection $\mathcal{B}$ of subsets of $S$ of size 3 such that any two elements of $S$ belong to exactly one element of $\mathcal{B}$. It is well known that the class of finite Steiner…

Let $M$ be a matroid defined on a finite set $E$ and $L\subset E$. $L$ is locked in $M$ if $M|L$ and $M^*|(E\backslash L)$ are 2-connected, and $min\{r(L), r^*(E\backslash L)\} \geq 2$. Locked subsets characterize nontrivial facets of the…

We prove a general divisibility theorem that implies, e.g., that, in any group, the number of generating pairs (as well as triples, etc.) is a multiple of the order of the commutator subgroup. Another corollary says that, in any associative…

A clutter is \emph{$k$-wise intersecting} if every $k$ members have a common element, yet no element belongs to all members. We conjecture that, for some integer $k\geq 4$, every $k$-wise intersecting clutter is non-ideal. As evidence for…

The Robinson Splitting Theorem states that a c.e. degree $\mathbf{b}$ splits over any low c.e. degree $\mathbf{c}<\mathbf{b}$. We prove that a weaker version of this theorem holds in models of $\mathrm{P}^-+\mathrm{I}\Sigma_1$, with lowness…

It is well known that the class of transversal matroids is not closed under contraction or duality. In particular, after contracting a set of elements from a transversal matroid, the resulting matroid may or may not be transversal, and the…

Given a simple Eulerian binary matroid $M$, what is the minimum number of disjoint circuits necessary to decompose $M$? We prove that $|M| / (\operatorname{rank}(M) + 1)$ many circuits suffice if $M = \mathbb F_2^n \setminus \{0\}$ is the…

The sticky polymatroid conjecture states that any two extensions of the polymatroid have an amalgam if and only if the polymatroid has no non-modular pairs of flats. We show that the conjecture holds for polymatroids on five or less…

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…

Let $M$ be a representable matroid, and $Q, R, S, T$ subsets of the ground set. We prove that, if $M$ is sufficiently large, then there is an element $e$ such that deleting or contracting $e$ preserves both the $Q$-$R$ and the $S$-$T$…

Leclerc and Zelevinsky, motivated by the study of quasi-commuting quantum flag minors, introduced the notions of strongly separated and weakly separated collections. These notions are closely related to the theory of cluster algebras, to…

We prove a general result concerning cyclic orderings of the elements of a matroid. For each matroid $M$, weight function $\omega:E(M)\rightarrow\mathbb{N}$, and positive integer $D$, the following are equivalent. (1) For all $A\subseteq…

We show that, for each real number $\epsilon > 0$ there is an integer $c$ such that, if $M$ is a simple triangle-free binary matroid with $|M| \ge (\tfrac{1}{4} + \epsilon) 2^{r(M)}$, then $M$ has critical number at most $c$. We also give a…

In this paper, our goal is to characterize two graph classes based on the properties of minimal vertex (edge) separators. We first present a structural characterization of graphs in which every minimal vertex separator is a stable set. We…

The configuration of a matroid $M$ is the abstract lattice of cyclic flats (flats that are unions of circuits) where we record the size and rank of each cyclic flat, but not the set. One can compute the Tutte polynomial of $M$, and stronger…

A central unresolved question in the theory of superconductivity is why only a small subset of metallic elements exhibit a superconducting state, whereas many others remain strictly normal. Neither the conventional Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer…