English

Representability of orthogonal matroids over partial fields

Combinatorics 2024-01-02 v2

Abstract

Let rnr \leqslant n be nonnegative integers, and let N=(nr)1N = \binom{n}{r} - 1. For a matroid MM of rank rr on the finite set E=[n]E = [n] and a partial field kk in the sense of Semple--Whittle, it is known that the following are equivalent: (a) MM is representable over kk; (b) there is a point p=(pJ)PN(k)p = (p_J) \in {\bf P}^N(k) with support MM (meaning that Supp(p):={J(Er)    pJ0}\text{Supp}(p) := \{J \in \binom{E}{r} \; \vert \; p_J \ne 0\} of pp is the set of bases of MM) satisfying the Grassmann-Pl\"ucker equations; and (c) there is a point p=(pJ)PN(k)p = (p_J) \in {\bf P}^N(k) with support MM satisfying just the 3-term Grassmann-Pl\"ucker equations. Moreover, by a theorem of P. Nelson, almost all matroids (meaning asymptotically 100%) are not representable over any partial field. We prove analogues of these facts for Lagrangian orthogonal matroids in the sense of Gelfand-Serganova, which are equivalent to even Delta-matroids in the sense of Bouchet.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.03256,
  title  = {Representability of orthogonal matroids over partial fields},
  author = {Matthew Baker and Tong Jin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.03256},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-25T01:31:02.611Z