Given a map $\mathcal M$ on a connected and closed orientable surface, the delta-matroid of $\mathcal M$ is a combinatorial object associated to $\mathcal M$ which captures some topological information of the embedding. We explore how delta-matroids associated to dessins d'enfants behave under the action of the absolute Galois group. Twists of delta-matroids are considered as well; they correspond to the recently introduced operation of partial duality of maps. Furthermore, we prove that every map has a partial dual defined over its field of moduli. A relationship between dessins, partial duals and tropical curves arising from the cartography groups of dessins is observed as well.
We introduce delta-graphic matroids, which are matroids whose bases form graphic delta-matroids. The class of delta-graphic matroids contains graphic matroids as well as cographic matroids and is a proper subclass of the class of regular matroids. We give a structural characterization of the class of delta-graphic matroids. We also show that every forbidden minor for the class of delta-graphic matroids has at most $48$ elements.
Matroid theory is often thought of as a generalization of graph theory. In this paper we propose an analogous correspondence between embedded graphs and delta-matroids. We show that delta-matroids arise as the natural extension of graphic matroids to the setting of embedded graphs. We show that various basic ribbon graph operations and concepts have delta-matroid analogues, and illustrate how the connections between embedded graphs and delta-matroids can be exploited. Also, in direct analogy with the fact that The Tutte polynomial is matroidal, we show that several polynomials of embedded grap…
We generalize theories of graph, matroid, and ribbon-graph activities to delta-matroids. As a result, we obtain an activities based feasible-set expansion for a transition polynomial of delta-matroids defined by Brijder and Hoogeboom. This result yields feasible-set expansions for the two-variable Bollobás-Riordan and interlace polynomials of a delta-matroid. In the former case, the expansion obtained directly generalizes the activities expansions of the Tutte polynomial of graphs and matroids.
In this work, we study the operations of handle slides introduced recently for delta-matroids by Iain Moffatt and Eunice Mphako-Banda. We then prove that the class of binary delta-matroids is the only class of delta-matroids closed under handle slides.
Recently, we introduced the twist polynomials of delta-matroids and gave a characterization of even normal binary delta-matroids whose twist polynomials have only one term and posed a problem: what would happen for odd binary delta-matroids? In this paper, we show that a normal binary delta-matroid whose twist polynomials have only one term if and only if each connected component of the intersection graph of the delta-matroid is either a complete graph of odd order or a single vertex with a loop.
The width of a delta-matroid is the difference in size between a maximal and minimal feasible set. We give a Rough Structure Theorem for delta-matroids that admit a twist of width one. We apply this theorem to give an excluded minor characterisation of delta-matroids that admit a twist of width at most one.
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 for…
In this work, we study the interlace polynomial as a generalization of a graph invariant to delta-matroids. We prove that the interlace polynomial satisfies the four-term relation for delta-matroids and determines thus a finite type invariant of links in the 3-sphere.
We provide a unified framework in which the interlace polynomial and several related graph polynomials are defined more generally for multimatroids and delta-matroids. Using combinatorial properties of multimatroids rather than graph-theoretical arguments, we find that various known results about these polynomials, including their recursive relations, are both more efficiently and more generally obtained. In addition, we obtain several interrelationships and results for polynomials on multimatroids and delta-matroids that correspond to new interrelationships and results for the corresponding g…
Whitney's 2-Isomorphism Theorem characterises when two graphs have isomorphic cycle matroids. We present an analogue of this theorem for graphs embedded in surfaces by characterising when two graphs in surface have isomorphic delta-matroids.
The mutually enriching relationship between graphs and matroids has motivated discoveries in both fields. In this paper, we exploit the similar relationship between embedded graphs and delta-matroids. There are well-known connections between geometric duals of plane graphs and duals of matroids. We obtain analogous connections for various types of duality in the literature for graphs in surfaces of higher genus and delta-matroids. Using this interplay, we establish a rough structure theorem for delta-matroids that are twists of matroids, we translate Petrie duality on ribbon graphs to loop com…
Delta-matroid theory is often thought of as a generalization of topological graph theory. It is well-known that an orientable embedded graph is bipartite if and only if its Petrie dual is orientable. In this paper, we first introduce the concepts of Eulerian and bipartite delta-matroids and then extend the result from embedded graphs to arbitrary binary delta-matroids. The dual of any bipartite embedded graph is Eulerian. We also extend the result from embedded graphs to the class of delta-matroids that arise as twists of binary matroids. Several related results are also obtained.
In contrast to matroids, vf-safe delta-matroids have three kinds of minors and are closed under the operations of twist and loop complementation. We show that the delta-matroids representable over GF(4) with respect to the nontrivial automorphism of GF(4) form a subclass of the vf-safe delta-matroids closed under twist and loop complementation. In particular, quaternary matroids are vf-safe. Using this result, we show that the matroid of a bicycle space of a quaternary matroid M is obtained from M by using loop complementation. As a consequence, the matroid of a bicycle space of a quaternary m…
Recently, Gross, Mansour and Tucker introduced the partial duality polynomial of a ribbon graph and posed a conjecture that there is no orientable ribbon graph whose partial duality polynomial has only one non-constant term. We found an infinite family of counterexamples for the conjecture and showed that essentially these are the only counterexamples. This is also obtained independently by Chumutov and Vignes-Tourneret and they posed a problem: it would be interesting to know whether the partial duality polynomial and the related conjectures would make sence for general delta-matroids. In thi…
We prove a splitter theorem for tight multimatroids, generalizing the corresponding result for matroids, obtained independently by Brylawski and Seymour. Further corollaries give splitter theorems for delta-matroids and ribbon graphs.
We show that the symmetric difference distance measure for set systems, and more specifically for delta-matroids, corresponds to the notion of nullity for symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices. In particular, as graphs (i.e., symmetric matrices over GF(2)) may be seen as a special class of delta-matroids, this distance measure generalizes the notion of nullity in this case. We characterize delta-matroids in terms of equicardinality of minimal sets with respect to inclusion (in addition we obtain similar characterizations for matroids). In this way, we find that, e.g., the delta-matroids obtain…
The handle slide operation, originally defined for ribbon graphs, was extended to delta-matroids by I. Moffatt and E. Mphako-Bandab, who 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 analogous to the canonical form for one-vertex maps on a surface. We provide a canonical form for binary delta-matroids without restriction on the feasibility of the empty set.
Stanley's symmetrized chromatic polynomial is a generalization of the ordinary chromatic polynomial to a graph invariant with values in a ring of polynomials in infnitely many variables. The ordinary chromatic polynomial is a specialization of the Stanley's one. Our goal is to extend Stanley's chromatic polynomial to embedded graphs. In contrast to well-known extensions of, say, the Tutte polynomial from abstract to embedded graphs [5], we do not treat an embedded graph as an abstract graph endowed with additional information about the embedding. Instead, we consider the binary delta-matroid a…
Vassiliev (finite type) invariants of knots can be described in terms of weight systems. These are functions on chord diagrams satisfying so-called 4-term relations. In the study of the sl2 weight system, it was shown that its value on a chord diagram depends on the intersection graph of the diagram rather than on the diagram itself. Moreover, it was shown that the value of this weight system on an intersection graph depends on the cy- cle matroid of the graph rather than on the graph itself. This result arose the question whether there is a natural way to introduce a 4-term relation on the sp…
School of Mathematical Sciences, Xiamen University（厦门大学数学科学学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Lanzhou University（兰州大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Qinghai Minzu University（青海民族大学数学与统计学院）
Partial-twuality polynomial interpolation for binary delta-matroids
School of Mathematical Sciences, Xiamen University（厦门大学数学科学学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Lanzhou University（兰州大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Qinghai Minzu University（青海民族大学数学与统计学院）
For a map $\mathcal M$ cellularly embedded on a connected and closed orientable surface, the bases of its Lagrangian (also known as delta-) matroid $Δ(\mathcal M)$ correspond to the bases of a Lagrangian subspace $L$ of the standard orthogonal space $\mathbb{Q}^E\oplus\mathbb{Q}^{E^*}$, where $E$ and $E^*$ are the edge-sets of $\mathcal M$ and its dual map. The Lagrangian subspace $L$ is said to be a representation of both $\mathcal M$ and $Δ(\mathcal M)$. Furthermore, the bases of $Δ(\mathcal M)$, when understood as vertices of the hypercube $[-1,1]^n$, induce a polytope $\mathbf P(Δ(\mathcal…
The spinor variety is cut out by the quadratic Wick relations among the principal Pfaffians of an n x n skew-symmetric matrix. Its points correspond to n-dimensional isotropic subspaces of a 2n-dimensional vector space. In this paper we tropicalize this picture, and we develop a combinatorial theory of tropical Wick vectors and tropical linear spaces that are tropically isotropic. We characterize tropical Wick vectors in terms of subdivisions of Delta-matroid polytopes, and we examine to what extent the Wick relations form a tropical basis. Our theory generalizes several results for tropical l…
Finite order invariants (Vassiliev invariants) of knots are expressed in terms of weight systems, that is, functions on chord diagrams satisfying the four-term relations. Weight systems have graph analogues, so-called $4$-invariants of graphs, i.e. functions on graphs that satisfy the four-term relations for graphs. Each $4$-invariant determines a weight system. The notion of weight system is naturally generalized for the case of embedded graphs with an arbitrary number of vertices. Such embedded graphs correspond to links; to each component of a link there corresponds a vertex of an embedded …
School of Mathematical Sciences, Xiamen University（厦门大学数学科学学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Qinghai Minzu University（青海民族大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Lanzhou University（兰州大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Minnan Normal University（闽南师范大学数学与统计学院）
Multimatroids generalize matroids, delta-matroids, and isotropic systems, and transition polynomials of multimatroids subsume various polynomials for these latter combinatorial structures, such as the interlace polynomial and the Tutte-Martin polynomial. We prove evaluations of the Tutte-Martin polynomial of isotropic systems from Bouchet directly and more efficiently in the context of transition polynomials of multimatroids. Moreover, we generalize some related evaluations of the transition polynomial of 4-regular graphs from Jaeger to multimatroids. These evaluations are obtained in a unifor…
We introduce a binary matroid M(IAS(G)) associated with a looped simple graph G. M(IAS(G)) classifies G up to local equivalence, and determines the delta-matroid and isotropic system associated with G. Moreover, a parametrized form of its Tutte polynomial yields the interlace polynomials of G.
In unpublished work, Geelen proved that a matroid is near-regular if and only if it has no minor isomorphic to: U2,5; U3,5; the Fano plane and its dual; the non-Fano and its dual; the single-element deletion of AG(2,3), its dual, and the matroid obtained from it with a Delta-Y operation; and P8. We provide a proof of this characterization.
For every finite simple connected graph $G = (V,E)$, we introduce an invariant, its blowup-polynomial $p_G(\{ n_v : v \in V \})$. This is obtained by dividing the determinant of the distance matrix of its blowup graph $G[{\bf n}]$ (containing $n_v$ copies of $v$) by an exponential factor. We show that $p_G({\bf n})$ is indeed a polynomial function in the sizes $n_v$, which is moreover multi-affine and real-stable. This associates a hitherto unexplored delta-matroid to each graph $G$; and we provide a second unexplored one for each tree. As another consequence, we obtain a new characterization …
If $G$ is a looped graph, then its adjacency matrix represents a binary matroid $M_{A}(G)$ on $V(G)$. $M_{A}(G)$ may be obtained from the delta-matroid represented by the adjacency matrix of $G$, but $M_{A}(G)$ is less sensitive to the structure of $G$. Jaeger proved that every binary matroid is $M_{A}(G)$ for some $G$ [Ann. Discrete Math. 17 (1983), 371-376]. The relationship between the matroidal structure of $M_{A}(G)$ and the graphical structure of $G$ has many interesting features. For instance, the matroid minors $M_{A}(G)-v$ and $M_{A}(G)/v$ are both of the form $M_{A}(G^{\prime}-v)$ wh…
