Oriented matroids (often called order types) are combinatorial structures that generalize point configurations, vector configurations, hyperplane arrangements, polyhedra, linear programs, and directed graphs. Oriented matroids have played a key role in combinatorics, computational geometry, and optimization. This paper surveys prior work and presents an update on the search for bounds on the diameter of the cocircuit graph of an oriented matroid.
We review the diameter problem and show the diameter bounds of general oriented matroids reduce to those of uniform oriented matroids. We give the latest exact bounds for oriented matroids of low rank and low corank, and for all oriented matroids with up to nine elements (this part required a large computer-based proof). The motivation for our investigations is the complexity of the simplex method and the criss-cross method. For arbitrary oriented matroids, we present an improvement to a quadratic bound of Finschi. Our discussion highlights two very important conjectures related to the polynomial Hirsch conjecture for polytope diameters.
An excluded minor characterization for the class of binary signed-graphic matroids with graphic cocircuits is provided. In this report we present the necessary computations for the case analysis in the proof.
We construct some matroids that have a circuit and a cocircuit with infinite intersection. This answers a question of Bruhn, Diestel, Kriesell, Pendavingh and Wollan. It further shows that the axiom system for matroids proposed by Dress does not axiomatize all infinite matroids. We show that one of the matroids we define is a thin sums matroid whose dual isn't a thin sums matroid.
We present an algorithm which takes a graph as input and decides in cubic time if the graph is the cocircuit graph of a uniform oriented matroid. In the affirmative case the algorithm returns the set of signed cocircuits of the oriented matroid. This improves an algorithm proposed by Babson, Finschi and Fukuda. Moreover we strengthen a result of Montellano-Ballesteros and Strausz about crabbed connectivity of cocircuit graphs of uniform oriented matroids.
Halin proved that every minimally $k$-connected graph has a vertex of degree $k$. More generally, does every minimally vertically $k$-connected matroid have a $k$-element cocircuit? Results of Murty and Wong give an affirmative answer when $k \le 3$. We show that every minimally vertically $4$-connected matroid with at least six elements has a $4$-element cocircuit, or a $5$-element cocircuit that contains a triangle, with the exception of a specific non-binary $9$-element matroid. Consequently, every minimally vertically $4$-connected binary matroid with at least six elements has a $4$-elemen…
The first author introduced the circuit-cocircuit reversal system of an oriented matroid, and showed that when the underlying matroid is regular, the cardinalities of such system and its variations are equal to special evaluations of the Tutte polynomial (e.g., the total number of circuit-cocircuit reversal classes equals $t(M;1,1)$, the number of bases of the matroid). By relating these classes to activity classes studied by the first author and Las Vergnas, we give an alternative proof of the above results and a proof of the converse statements that these equalities fail whenever the underly…
Let $M$ be a 3-connected binary matroid and let $Y(M)$ be the set of elements of $M$ avoiding at least $r(M)+1$ non-separating cocircuits of $M$. Lemos proved that $M$ is non-graphic if and only if $Y(M)\neq\emp$. We generalize this result when by establishing that $Y(M)$ is very large when $M$ is non-graphic and $M$ has no $M\s(K_{3,3}"')$-minor if $M$ is regular. More precisely that $|E(M)-Y(M)|\le 1$ in this case. We conjecture that when $M$ is a regular matroid with an $M\s(K_{3,3})$-minor, then $r\s_M(E(M)-Y(M))\le 2$. The proof of such conjecture is reduced to a computational verificatio…
For all positive integers $t$ exceeding one, a matroid has the cyclic $(t-1,t)$-property if its ground set has a cyclic ordering $σ$ such that every set of $t-1$ consecutive elements in $σ$ is contained in a $t$-element circuit and $t$-element cocircuit. We show that if $M$ has the cyclic $(t-1,t)$-property and $|E(M)|$ is sufficiently large, then these $t$-element circuits and $t$-element cocircuits are arranged in a prescribed way in $σ$, which, for odd $t$, is analogous to how 3-element circuits and cocircuits appear in wheels and whirls, and, for even $t$, is analogous to how 4-element cir…
Oxley conjectured (1992) that if a matroid has a circuit-cocircuit intersection of size $k\ge4$, it has a circuit-cocircuit intersection of size $k-2$. We show that this conjecture holds for $k\le6$.
Solving (for tame matroids) a problem of Aigner-Horev, Diestel and Postle, we prove that every tame matroid M can be reconstructed from its canonical tree decomposition into 3-connected pieces, circuits and cocircuits together with information about which ends of the decomposition tree are used by M . For every locally finite graph G, we show that every tame matroid whose circuits are topological circles of G and whose cocircuits are bonds of G is determined by the set Psi of ends it uses, that is, it is a Psi-matroid.
Las Vergnas Cube Conjecture states that the cube matroid has exactly one class of orientations. We prove that this conjecture is equivalent to saying that the oriented matroid of the affine dependencies of the n-cube can be reconstructed from the underlying matroid and one of the following partial lists of signed circuits or cocircuits: A) the signed circuits of rank 3, or B) the positive signed cocircuits.
We consider the situation that M and N are 3-connected matroids such that |E(N)| > 3 and C* is a cocircuit of M with the property that M/y has an N-minor for some y in C*. We show that either there is an element x in C* such that si(M/x) or co(si(M/x)) is 3-connected with an N-minor, or there is a four-element fan of M that contains two elements of C* and an element x such that si(M/x) is 3-connected with an N-minor.
In this paper we employ Tutte's theory of bridges to derive a decomposition theorem for binary matroids arising from signed graphs. The proposed decomposition differs from previous decomposition results on matroids that have appeared in the literature in the sense that it is not based on $k$-sums, but rather on the operation of deletion of a cocircuit. Specifically, it is shown that certain minors resulting from the deletion of a cocircuit of a binary matroid will be graphic matroids apart from exactly one that will be signed-graphic, if and only if the matroid is signed-graphic.
An infinite matroid is graphic if all of its finite minors are graphic and the intersection of any circuit with any cocircuit is finite. We show that a matroid is graphic if and only if it can be represented by a graph-like topological space: that is, a graph-like space in the sense of Thomassen and Vella. This extends Tutte's characterization of finite graphic matroids. The representation we construct has many pleasant topological properties. Working in the representing space, we prove that any circuit in a 3-connected graphic matroid is countable.
Brown has shown that the Stanley-Reisner ring of the broken circuit complex of a graph has a linear system of parameters which is defined in terms of the circuits and cocircuits of the graph. Later on Brown and Sagan conjectured a special set of monomials - a so-called NBC basis - described in terms of the circuits and cocircuits of the graph to be a monomial basis for the corresponding quotient of the Stanley-Reisner ring and proved this to be true for theta and phi graphs. We generalize the aforementioned linear system of parameters to broken circuit complexes of regular matroids and transfe…
The classical matrix tree theorem relates the number of spanning trees of a connected graph with the product of the nonzero eigenvalues of its Laplacian matrix. The class of regular matroids generalizes that of graphical matroids, and a generalization of the matrix tree theorem holds for this wider class. We give a new, geometric proof of this fact by showing via a dissect-and-rearrange argument that two combinatorially distinct zonotopes associated to a regular matroid have the same volume. Along the way we prove that for a regular oriented matroid represented by a unimodular matrix, the latt…
In 30's Hassler Whitney considered and completely solved the problem $(WP)$ of describing the classes of graphs $G$ having the same cycle matroid $M(G)$. A natural analog $(WP)'$ of Whitney's problem $(WP)$ is to describe the classes of graphs $G$ having the same matroid $M'(G)$, where $M'(G)$ is a matroid (on the edge set of $G$) distinct from $M(G)$. For example, the corresponding problem $(WP)'= (WP)_{θ}$ for the so-called bicircular matroid $M_{θ}(G)$ of graph $G$ was solved by Coulard, Del Greco and Wagner. We define the so-called {\em $k$-circular matroid} $M_k(G)$ on the edge set of gra…
In his seminal 1983 paper, Jim Lawrence introduced lopsided sets and featured them as asymmetric counterparts of oriented matroids, both sharing the key property of strong elimination. Moreover, symmetry of faces holds in both structures as well as in the so-called affine oriented matroids. These two fundamental properties (formulated for covectors) together lead to the natural notion of "conditional oriented matroid" (abbreviated COM). These novel structures can be characterized in terms of three cocircuits axioms, generalizing the familiar characterization for oriented matroids. We describe …
Embracing exchange sequences and oriented matroid polyhedron diameter
MTA-ELTE Matroid Optimization Research Group and HUN-REN-ELTE Egerváry Research Group, Department of Operations Research, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University（匈牙利科学院-罗兰大学拟阵优化研究组和匈牙利研究与创新网络-罗兰大学埃格瓦里研究组，运筹学系，罗兰大学）；HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics（匈牙利研究与创新网络阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所）；Departament de Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Centre de Recerca Matemàtica（巴塞罗那大学数学与计算机科学系，数学研究中心）；Departament d’Enginyeria Informàtica i Matemàtiques, Universitat Rovira i Virgili（加泰罗尼亚理工大学生物信息学与数学工程系）
The investigation of combinatorial diameters of polyhedra is a classical topic in linear programming due to its connection with the possibility of an efficient pivot rule for the simplex method. We are interested in the diameters of polyhedra formed from the so-called parallel or series connection of oriented matroids: oriented matroids are the natural way to connect representable matroid theory with the combinatorics of linear programming, and these connections are fundamental operations for the construction of more complicated matroids from elementary matroid blocks. We prove that, for polyh…
A computer search through the oriented matroid programs with dimension 5 and 10 facets shows that the maximum strictly monotone diameter is 5. Thus $Δ_{sm}(5,10)=5$. This enumeration is analogous to that of Bremner and Schewe for the non-monotone diameter of 6-polytopes with 12 facets. Similar enumerations show that $Δ_{sm}(4,9)=5$ and $Δ_m(4,9)=Δ_m(5,10)=6.$ We shorten the known non-computer proof of the strict monotone 4-step conjecture.
We show that the edge graph of a 6-dimensional polytope with 12 facets has diameter at most 6, thus verifying the d-step conjecture of Klee and Walkup in the case of d=6. This implies that for all pairs (d,n) with n-d \leq 6 the diameter of the edge graph of a d-polytope with n facets is bounded by 6, which proves the Hirsch conjecture for all n-d \leq 6. We show this result by showing this bound for a more general structure -- so-called matroid polytopes -- by reduction to a small number of satisfiability problems.
