We consider three forms of composition of matroids, each of which extends the category of bimatroids to a rigid monoidal category. Many well-known constructions are functorial or defined by morphisms in these categories. Motivating examples include: deletion and contraction, 2-sum, series and parallel connections, the Tutte polynomial, gammoids, positroids, matroids representable over an infinite field, M-convex sets, and matroids associated to stable polynomials.
q-Matroids form the q-analogue of classical matroids. In this paper we introduce various types of maps between q-matroids. These maps are not necessarily linear, but they map subspaces to subspaces and respect the q-matroid structure in certain ways. The various types of maps give rise to different categories of q-matroids. We show that only one of these categories possesses a coproduct. This is the category where the morphisms are linear weak maps, that is, the rank of the image of any subspace is not larger than the rank of the subspace itself. The coproduct in this category is the very rece…
A bar-joint framework $(G,p)$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is rigid if the only edge-length preserving continuous motions of the vertices arise from isometries of $\mathbb{R}^d$. It is known that, when $(G,p)$ is generic, its rigidity depends only on the underlying graph $G$, and is determined by the rank of the edge set of $G$ in the generic $d$-dimensional rigidity matroid $\mathcal{R}_d$. Complete combinatorial descriptions of the rank function of this matroid are known when $d=1,2$, and imply that all circuits in $\mathcal{R}_d$ are generically rigid in $\mathbb{R}^d$ when $d=1,2$. Determining the ra…
Motivated by a rigidity-theoretic perspective on the Localization Problem in 2D, we develop an algorithm for computing circuit polynomials in the algebraic rigidity matroid associated to the Cayley-Menger ideal for $n$ points in 2D. We introduce combinatorial resultants, a new operation on graphs that captures properties of the Sylvester resultant of two polynomials in the algebraic rigidity matroid. We show that every rigidity circuit has a construction tree from $K_4$ graphs based on this operation. Our algorithm performs an algebraic elimination guided by the construction tree, and uses cla…
In this paper, we investigate the relation between a $q$-matroid and its associated matroid called the projectivization matroid. The latter arises by projectivizing the groundspace of the $q$-matroid and considering the projective space as the groundset of the associated matroid on which is defined a rank function compatible with that of the $q$-matroid. We show that the projectivization map is a functor from categories of $q$-matroids to categories of matroids, which allows to prove new results about maps of $q$-matroids. We furthermore show the characteristic polynomial of a $q$-matroid is e…
This paper examines the category $\mathbf{Mat}_{\bullet}$ of pointed matroids and strong maps from the point of view of Hall algebras. We show that $\mathbf{Mat}_{\bullet}$ has the structure of a finitary proto-exact category - a non-additive generalization of exact category due to Dyckerhoff-Kapranov. We define the algebraic K-theory $K_* (\mathbf{Mat}_{\bullet})$ of $\mathbf{Mat}_{\bullet}$ via the Waldhausen construction, and show that it is non-trivial, by exhibiting injections $$π^s_n (\mathbb{S}) \hookrightarrow K_n (\mathbf{Mat}_{\bullet})$$ from the stable homotopy groups of spheres fo…
Rank Contributions of Vertices in Rigidity Matroids of Clique Covered Graphs
Queen Mary University of London（伦敦大学玛丽女王学院）；HUN-REN-ELTE Egerváry Research Group on Combinatorial Optimization（匈牙利研究与教育网络-罗兰大学组合优化Egerváry研究组）；Department of Operations Research, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University（罗兰大学运筹学系）
We characterize the combinatorial types of symmetric frameworks in the plane that are minimally generically symmetry-forced infinitesimally rigid when the symmetry group consists of rotations and translations. Along the way, we use tropical geometry to show how a construction of Edmonds that associates a matroid to a submodular function can be used to give a description of the algebraic matroid of a Hadamard product of two linear spaces in terms of the matroids of each linear space. This leads to new, short, proofs of Laman's theorem, and a theorem of Jord{á}n, Kaszanitzky, and Tanigawa, and M…
In this paper, we define the notion of rigidity for linear electrical multiports and for matroid pairs. We show the parallel between the two and study the consequences of this parallel. We present applications to testing, using purely matroidal methods, whether a connection of rigid multiports yields a linear network with unique solution. We also indicate that rigidity can be regarded as the closest notion to duality that can be hoped for, when the spaces correspond to different physical constraints, such as topological and device characteristic. A multiport is an ordered pair $(\V^1_{AB},\A^2…
We show that each algebraic representation of a matroid $M$ in positive characteristic determines a matroid valuation of $M$, which we have named the {\em Lindström valuation}. If this valuation is trivial, then a linear representation of $M$ in characteristic $p$ can be derived from the algebraic representation. Thus, so-called rigid matroids, which only admit trivial valuations, are algebraic in positive characteristic $p$ if and only if they are linear in characteristic $p$. To construct the Lindström valuation, we introduce new matroid representations called flocks, and show that each alge…
This is an introductory paper about the category of regular oriented matroids (ROMs). We compare the homotopy types of the categories of regular and binary matroids. For example, in the unoriented case, they have the same fundamental group but we show that the higher homotopy groups are different for rank three regular and binary matroids. We also speculate on the possible impact of a recent theorem of Galatius [Gal] computing the stable cohomology of the category of graphs and on possible applications to higher Reidemeister torsion.
In recent years, various notions of algebraic independence have emerged as a central and unifying theme in a number of areas of applied mathematics, including algebraic statistics and the rigidity theory of bar-and-joint frameworks. In each of these settings the fundamental problem is to determine the extent to which certain unknowns depend algebraically on given data. This has, in turn, led to a resurgence of interest in algebraic matroids, which are the combinatorial formalism for algebraic (in)dependence. We give a self-contained introduction to algebraic matroids together with examples hig…
The structure of the category of matroids and strong maps is investigated: it has coproducts and equalizers, but not products or coequalizers; there are functors from the categories of graphs and vector spaces, the latter being faithful; there is a functor to the category of geometric lattices, that is nearly full; there are various adjunctions and free constructions on subcategories, inducing a simplification monad; there are two orthogonal factorization systems; some, but not many, combinatorial constructions from matroid theory are functorial.
We give a quantum-inspired $O(n^4)$ algorithm computing the Tutte polynomial of a lattice path matroid, where $n$ is the size of the ground set of the matroid. Furthermore, this can be improved to $O(n^2)$ arithmetic operations if we evaluate the Tutte polynomial on a given input, fixing the values of the variables. The best existing algorithm, found in 2004, was $O(n^5)$, and the problem has only been known to be polynomial time since 2003. Conceptually, our algorithm embeds the computation in a determinant using a recently demonstrated equivalence of categories useful for counting problems s…
A classical problem in Distance Geometry, with multiple practical applications (in molecular structure determination, sensor network localization etc.) is to find the possible placements of the vertices of a graph with given edge lengths. For minimally rigid graphs, the double-exponential Gröbner Bases algorithm with an elimination order can be applied, in theory, but it is impractical even for small instances. By relating the problem to the computation of circuit polynomials in the Cayley-Menger ideal, we recently proposed an algebraic-combinatorial approach and an elimination algorithm for c…
This thesis proposes a combinatorial generalization of a nilpotent operator on a vector space. The resulting object is highly natural, with basic connections to a variety of fields in pure mathematics, engineering, and the sciences. For the purpose of exposition we focus the discussion of applications on homological algebra and computation, with additional remarks in lattice theory, linear algebra, and abelian categories. For motivation, we recall that the methods of algebraic topology have driven remarkable progress in the qualitative study of large, noisy bodies of data over the past 15 year…
We study the cluster combinatorics of $d-$cluster tilting objects in $d-$cluster categories. By using mutations of maximal rigid objects in $d-$cluster categories which are defined similarly for $d-$cluster tilting objects, we prove the equivalences between $d-$cluster tilting objects, maximal rigid objects and complete rigid objects. Using the chain of $d+1$ triangles of $d-$cluster tilting objects in [IY], we prove that any almost complete $d-$cluster tilting object has exactly $d+1$ complements, compute the extension groups between these complements, and study the middle terms of these $d+1…
We introduce and study mutation of torsion pairs, as a generalization of mutation of cluster tilting objects, rigid objects and maximal rigid objects. It is proved that any mutation of a torsion pair is again a torsion pair. A geometric realization of mutation of torsion pairs in the cluster category of type $A_n$ or $A_{\infty}$ is given via rotation of Ptolemy diagrams.
