Handle slides for delta-matroids
Abstract
A classic exercise in the topology of surfaces is to show that, using handle slides, every disc-band surface, or 1-vertex ribbon graph, can be put in a canonical form consisting of the connected sum of orientable loops, and either non-orientable loops or pairs of interlaced orientable loops. Motivated by the principle that ribbon graph theory informs delta-matroid theory, we find the delta-matroid analogue of this surface classification. We show that, using a delta-matroid analogue of handle-slides, every binary delta-matroid in which the empty set is feasible can be written in a canonical form consisting of the direct sum of the delta-matroids of orientable loops, and either non-orientable loops or pairs of interlaced orientable loops. Our delta-matroid results are compatible with the surface results in the sense that they are their ribbon graphic delta-matroidal analogues.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1510.07224,
title = {Handle slides for delta-matroids},
author = {Iain Moffatt and Eunice Mphako-Banda},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1510.07224},
year = {2017}
}