English

Generalizing the Multiple Exchange Property for Matroid Bases

Combinatorics 2026-05-05 v2

Abstract

The multiple exchange property for matroid bases states that for any bases AA and BB of a matroid and any subset XABX\subseteq A\setminus B, there exists a subset YBAY\subseteq B\setminus A such that both AX+YA-X+Y and B+XYB+X-Y are bases. This classical result has found applications not only in matroid theory, but also in the analysis and design of various algorithms. This paper generalizes the multiple exchange property in two directions. First, we prove a common generalization of this and other known basis exchange properties by showing that for any subsets XABX \subseteq A \setminus B and YBAY \subseteq B \setminus A, there exist subsets UABU \subseteq A \setminus B and VBAV \subseteq B \setminus A such that XUX\subseteq U, YVY\subseteq V, AU+VA-U+V and B+UVB+U-V are bases, and U=V|U|=|V| is at most the rank of X+YX+Y. Second, we develop a general framework for deriving extensions of the Grassmann-Pl\"ucker identity, showing further exchange properties for matroids representable over a field of characteristic zero. Using our framework, we prove an exchange property for this matroid class that simultaneously generalizes our first result and the very recent Equitability Theorem (SODA 2026).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.16021,
  title  = {Generalizing the Multiple Exchange Property for Matroid Bases},
  author = {Taihei Oki and Tamás Schwarcz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.16021},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:46:33.204Z