Related papers: On a generalisation of spikes
We consider matroids with the property that every subset of the ground set of size $s$ is contained in a $2s$-element circuit and every subset of size $t$ is contained in a $2t$-element cocircuit. We say that such a matroid has the…
For all positive integers $t$ exceeding one, a matroid has the cyclic $(t-1,t)$-property if its ground set has a cyclic ordering $\sigma$ such that every set of $t-1$ consecutive elements in $\sigma$ is contained in a $t$-element circuit…
Generalizing a well known theorem for finite matroids, we prove that for every (infinite) connected matroid M there is a unique tree T such that the nodes of T correspond to minors of M that are either 3-connected or circuits or cocircuits,…
A minor-closed class of matroids is (strongly) fractal if the number of n-element matroids in the class is dominated by the number of n-element excluded minors. We conjecture that when K is an infinite field, the class of K-representable…
For an integer $n>2$, a rank-$n$ matroid is called an $n$-spike if it consists of $n$ three-point lines through a common point such that, for all $k\in\{1, 2, ..., n - 1\}$, the union of every set of $k$ of these lines has rank $k+1$.…
Halin proved that every minimally $k$-connected graph has a vertex of degree $k$. More generally, does every minimally vertically $k$-connected matroid have a $k$-element cocircuit? Results of Murty and Wong give an affirmative answer when…
For all positive integers $s$ and $t$ exceeding one, a matroid $M$ on $n$ elements is {\em nearly $(s, t)$-cyclic} if there is a cyclic ordering $\sigma$ of its ground set such that every $s-1$ consecutive elements of $\sigma$ are contained…
We show that if the ground set of a matroid can be partitioned into $k\ge 2$ bases, then for any given subset $S$ of the ground set, there is a partition into $k$ bases such that the sizes of the intersections of the bases with $S$ may…
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, 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 prove that for any circle graph $H$ with at least one edge and for any positive integer $k$, there exists an integer $t=t(k,H)$ so that every graph $G$ either has a vertex-minor isomorphic to the disjoint union of $k$ copies of $H$, or…
Let $M$ be a $3$-connected matroid. A pair $\{e,f\}$ in $M$ is detachable if $M \backslash e \backslash f$ or $M / e / f$ is $3$-connected. Williams (2015) proved that if $M$ has at least 13 elements, then at least one of the following…
An intertwine of a pair of matroids is a matroid such that it, but none of its proper minors, has minors that are isomorphic to each matroid in the pair. For pairs for which neither matroid can be obtained, up to isomorphism, from the other…
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 $1$.…
Spikes are an important class of 3-connected matroids. For an integer $r\geq 3$, there is a unique binary r-spike denoted by $Z_{r}$. When a circuit-hyperplane of $Z_{r}$ is relaxed, we obtain another spike and repeating this procedure will…
Let $M$ be a matroid and let $Q$, $R$, $S$ and $T$ be subsets of the ground set such that the smallest separation that separates $Q$ from $R$ has order $k$ and the smallest separation that separates $S$ from $T$ has order $l$. We prove that…
For any minor-closed class of matroids over a fixed finite field, we state an exact structural characterization for the sufficiently connected matroids in the class. We also state a number of conjectures that might be approachable using the…
An infinite matroid is graphic if all of its finite minors are graphic and the intersection of any circuit with any cocircuit is finite. We show that a matroid is graphic if and only if it can be represented by a graph-like topological…
Given two finite matroids on the same ground set, a celebrated result of Edmonds says that the ground set can be partitioned into two disjoint subsets in a manner that there is a common independent set in both matroids whose intersection…
It is well known that a matroid L is a lift of a matroid M if and only if every circuit of L is the union of some circuits of M. In this paper we give a simpler proof of this important theorem. We also described a discrete homotopy theorem…