On the regularity of orientable matroids

We present two characterizations of regular matroids among orientable matroids and use them to give a measure of “how far” an orientable matroid is from being regular.     

On Tutte polynomial expansion formulas in perspectives of matroids and oriented matroids

We introduce the active partition of the ground set of an oriented matroid perspective (or morphism, or quotient, or strong map) on a linearly ordered ground set. The reorientations obtained by arbitrarily reorienting parts of the active partition share the same active partition. This yields an equivalence relation for the set of reorientations of an oriented matroid perspective, whose classes are enumerated by coefficients of the Tutte polynomial, and a remarkable partition of the set of reorientations into Boolean lattices, from which we get a short direct proof of a 4-variable expansion formula for the Tutte polynomial in terms of orientation activities. This formula was given in the last unpublished preprint by Michel Las Vergnas; the above equivalence relation and notion of active partition generalize a former construction in oriented matroids by Michel Las Vergnas and the author; and the possibility of such a proof technique in perspectives was announced in the aforementioned preprint. We also briefly highlight how the 5-variable expansion of the Tutte polynomial in terms of subset activities in matroid perspectives comes in a similar way from the known partition of the power set of the ground set into Boolean lattices related to subset activities (and we complete the proof with a property which was missing in the literature). In particular, the paper applies to matroids and oriented matroids on a linearly ordered ground set, and applies to graph and directed graph homomorphisms on a linearly ordered edge-set.     

Unipancyclic matroids

Analogous to the concept of uniquely pancyclic graphs, we define a uniquely pancyclic (UPC) matroid of rank $r$ to be a (simple) rank-$r$ matroid containing exactly one circuit of each length $?$ for $3\le ?\le r+1$. Our discussion addresses the existence of graphic, binary, and transversal representations of UPC matroids. Using Shi’s results, which catalogued exactly seven non-isomorphic UPC graphs, we produce a nongraphic binary UPC matroid of rank 24. We consider properties of binary UPC matroids in general, and prove that all binary UPC matroids have a connectivity of $2$.     

Some heterochromatic theorems for matroids

The anti-Ramsey number of Erdös, Simonovits and Sós from 1973 has become a classic invariant in Graph Theory. To extend this invariant to Matroid Theory, we use the heterochromatic number $hc\left(H\right)$ of a non-empty hypergraph $H$. The heterochromatic number of $H$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that for every colouring of the vertices of $H$ with exactly $k$ colours, there is a totally multicoloured hyperedge of $H$.Given a matroid $M$, there are several hypergraphs over the ground set of $M$ we can consider, for example, $C\left(M\right)$, whose hyperedges are the circuits of $M$, or $B\left(M\right)$, whose hyperedges are the bases of $M$. We determine $hc\left(C\left(M\right)\right)$ for general matroids and characterise the matroids with the property that $hc\left(B\left(M\right)\right)$ equals the rank of the matroid. We also consider the case when the hyperedges are the Hamiltonian circuits of the matroid. Finally, we extend the known result about the anti-Ramsey number of 3-cycles in complete graphs to the heterochromatic number of 3-circuits in projective geometries over finite fields, and we propose a problem very similar to the famous problem on the anti-Ramsey number of the $p$-cycles.     

Thin sums matroids and duality

Building on the recent axiomatisation of infinite matroids with duality, we present a theory of representability for infinite matroids. This notion of representability allows for infinite sums, and is preserved under duality.     

Enumerating bases of self-dual matroids

We define involutively self-dual matroids and prove that an enumerator for their bases is the square of a related enumerator for their self-dual bases. This leads to a new proof of Tutte's theorem that the number of spanning trees of a central reflex is a perfect square, and it solves a problem posed by Kalai about higher dimensional spanning trees in simplicial complexes. We also give a weighted version of the latter result.We give an algebraic analogue relating to the critical group of a graph, a finite abelian group whose order is the number of spanning trees of the graph. We prove that the critical group of a central reflex is a direct sum of two copies of an abelian group, and conclude with an analogous result in Kalai's setting.     

Removing circuits in 3-connected binary matroids

For a k-connected graph or matroid M, where k is a fixed positive integer, we say that a subset X of E(M) is k-removable provided M?X is k-connected. In this paper, we obtain a sharp condition on the size of a 3-connected binary matroid to have a 3-removable circuit.     

Elements belonging to triangles in 3-connected matroids

An element e of a 3-connected matroid M is said to be superfluous provided M/e is 3-connected. In this paper, we show that a 3-connected matroid M with exactly k superfluous elements has at least

     

On the reliability roots of simplicial complexes and matroids

Assume that the vertices of a graph $G$ are always operational, but the edges of $G$ fail independently with probability $q\in [0,1]$. The all-terminal reliability of $G$ is the probability that the resulting subgraph is connected. The all-terminal reliability can be formulated into a polynomial in $q$, and it was conjectured that all the roots of (nonzero) reliability polynomials fall inside the closed unit disk. It has since been shown that there exist some connected graphs which have their reliability roots outside the closed unit disk, but these examples seem to be few and far between, and the roots are only barely outside the disk. In this paper we generalize the notion of reliability to simplicial complexes and matroids and investigate when the roots fall inside the closed unit disk. We show that such is the case for matroids of rank 3 and paving matroids of rank 4. We also prove that the reliability roots of shellable complexes are dense in the complex plane, and that the real reliability roots of any matroid lie in $[?1,0)\cup \left\{1\right\}$. Finally, we also show that the reliability roots of thickenings of the Fano matroid can lie outside the unit disk.     

Properties of Hamilton cycles of circuit graphs of matroids

Let G be a circuit graph of a connected matroid. P. Li and G. Liu [Comput. Math. Appl., 2008, 55: 654–659] proved that G has a Hamilton cycle including e and another Hamilton cycle excluding e for any edge e of G if G has at least four vertices. This paper proves that G has a Hamilton cycle including e and excluding e′ for any two edges e and e′ of G if G has at least five vertices. This result is best possible in some sense. An open problem is proposed in the end of this paper.     

A constrained independent set problem for matroids

In this note, we study a constrained independent set problem for matroids. The problem can be regarded as an ordered version of the matroid parity problem. By a reduction of this problem to matroid intersection, we prove a min-max formula. We show how earlier results of Hefner and Kleinschmidt on the so-called MS-matchings fit in our framework.     

Axioms for infinite matroids

We give axiomatic foundations for infinite matroids with duality, in terms of independent sets, bases, circuits, closure and rank. Continuing work of Higgs and Oxley, this completes the solution to a problem of Rado of 1966.     

On the Circuit-cocircuit Intersection Conjecture

Oxley has conjectured that for k≥4, if a matroid M has a k-element set that is the intersection of a circuit and a cocircuit, then M has a (k−2)-element set that is the intersection of a circuit and a cocircuit. In this paper we prove a stronger version of this conjecture for regular matroids. We also show that the stronger result does not hold for binary matroids. The second author was partially supported by CNPq (grant no 302195/02-5) and the ProNEx/CNPq (grant no 664107/97-4).     

Infinite matroids in graphs

It has recently been shown that infinite matroids can be axiomatized in a way that is very similar to finite matroids and permits duality. This was previously thought impossible, since finitary infinite matroids must have non-finitary duals.In this paper we illustrate the new theory by exhibiting its implications for the cycle and bond matroids of infinite graphs. We also describe their algebraic cycle matroids, those whose circuits are the finite cycles and double rays, and determine their duals. Finally, we give a sufficient condition for a matroid to be representable in a sense adapted to infinite matroids. Which graphic matroids are representable in this sense remains an open question.     

Oriented matroids and complete-graph embeddings on surfaces

We provide a link between topological graph theory and pseudoline arrangements from the theory of oriented matroids. We investigate and generalize a function f that assigns to each simple pseudoline arrangement with an even number of elements a pair of complete-graph embeddings on a surface. Each element of the pair keeps the information of the oriented matroid we started with. We call a simple pseudoline arrangement triangular, when the cells in the cell decomposition of the projective plane are 2-colorable and when one color class of cells consists of triangles only. Precisely for triangular pseudoline arrangements, one element of the image pair of f is a triangular complete-graph embedding on a surface. We obtain all triangular complete-graph embeddings on surfaces this way, when we extend the definition of triangular complete pseudoline arrangements in a natural way to that of triangular curve arrangements on surfaces in which each pair of curves has a point in common where they cross. Thus Ringel's results on the triangular complete-graph embeddings can be interpreted as results on curve arrangements on surfaces. Furthermore, we establish the relationship between 2-colorable curve arrangements and Petrie dual maps. A data structure, called intersection pattern is provided for the study of curve arrangements on surfaces. Finally we show that an orientable surface of genus g admits a complete curve arrangement with at most 2g+1 curves in contrast to the non-orientable surface where the number of curves is not bounded.     

Harmonic conjugation in harmonic matroids

We study a generalization of the concept of harmonic conjugation from projective geometry and full algebraic matroids to a larger class of matroids called harmonic matroids. We use harmonic conjugation to construct a projective plane of prime order in harmonic matroids without using the axioms of projective geometry. As a particular case we have a combinatorial construction of a projective plane of prime order in full algebraic matroids.     

Minimal non-orientable matroids in a projective plane

We construct a new family of minimal non-orientable matroids of rank three. Some of these matroids embed in Desarguesian projective planes. This answers a question of Ziegler: for every prime power q, find a minimal non-orientable submatroid of the projective plane over the q-element field.