Matroid intersection and packing/covering conjectures are true in the class of finitary matroids
Irfan Alam
备注：
I thank Nathan Bowler for pointing out a critical mistake at the end of my claimed proof of Theorem 2.1. The set ${^*}A \cap {^*}\mathbb{I}$ is not necessarily contained in its internal star extension as it was claimed in the last line of that proof. The purported proofs of both conjectures had this issue. An expository article growing out of the correct parts of this work will be posted soon
Given two finite matroids on the same ground set, a celebrated result of Edmonds says that the ground set can be partitioned into two disjoint subsets in a manner that there is a common independent set in both matroids whose intersection with the first subset spans that subset in the first matroid, and whose intersection with the second subset spans that subset in the second matroid.
There is a longstanding conjecture regarding the situation of two matroids defined on the same infinite ground set. Infinite matroids were only recently axiomatized in the early 2010s in the work of Bruhn et al., while the conjecture had been proposed during the 1990s for the class of structures that are now called finitary matroids, which are matroids all of whose circuits are finite sets.
The packing/covering conjecture, due to Bowler and Carmesin, is a related conjecture in the sense that it is true in the class of all matroids if and only if the matroid intersection conjecture is true in the class of all matroids. Given any family of matroids on the same ground set, the conjecture asks if it is possible to partition the ground set into two disjoint subsets in a way such that the corresponding family of matroids restricted to the first subset admits a packing while the family of matroids contracted to the second subset admits a covering.
We prove both of these conjectures in the class of finitary matroids. Our main tool is nonstandard analysis, specifically the technique of iterated nonstandard extensions. Roughly, we first embed any infinite matroid inside a hyperfinite matroid defined on a subset of the nonstandard extension of the original ground set, and we iteratively nonstandardly extend the hyperfinite structure again in order to prove results in the internal universe that can be directly transferred to obtain results about the matroid(s) we started with.
In this thesis, we study nearly finitary matroids by introducing new definitions and prove various properties of nearly finitary matroids. In 2010, an axiom system for infinite matroids was proposed by Bruhn et al. We use this axiom system for this thesis. In Chapter 2, we summarize our main results after reviewing historical background and motivation. In Chapter 3, we define a notion of spectrum for matroids. Moreover, we show that the spectrum of a nearly finitary matroid can be larger than any fixed finite size. We also give an example of a matroid with infinitely large spectrum that is not…
We consider the problem of determining whether the union of two infinite matroids is a matroid. We introduce a superclass of the finitary matroids, the nearly finitary matroids, and prove that the union of two nearly finitary matroids is a nearly finitary matroid. On the other hand, we prove that the union of two arbitrary infinite matroids is not necessarily a matroid. Indeed, we show (under a weak additional assumption) that the nearly finitary matroids are essentially the largest class of matroids for which one can have a union theorem. We then extend the base packing theorem for finite mat…
We show that the infinite matroid intersection conjecture of Nash-Williams implies the infinite Menger theorem proved recently by Aharoni and Berger. We prove that this conjecture is true whenever one matroid is nearly finitary and the second is the dual of a nearly finitary matroid, where the nearly finitary matroids form a superclass of the finitary matroids. In particular, this proves the infinite matroid intersection conjecture for finite-cycle matroids of 2-connected, locally finite graphs with only a finite number of vertex-disjoint rays.
We present a strengthening of the countable Menger theorem (edge version) of R. Aharoni. Let $ D=(V,A) $ be a countable digraph with $ s\neq t\in V $ and let $\mathcal{M}=\bigoplus_{v\in V}\mathcal{M}_v $ be a matroid on $ A $ where $ \mathcal{M}_v $ is a finitary matroid on the ingoing edges of $ v $. We show that there is a system of edge-disjoint $ s \rightarrow t $ paths $ \mathcal{P} $ such that the united edge set of the paths is $ \mathcal{M} $-independent, and there is a $ C \subseteq A $ consists of one edge from each element of $ \mathcal{P} $ for which $ \mathsf{span}_{\mathcal{M}}(…
We introduce a connectivity function for infinite matroids with properties similar to the connectivity function of a finite matroid, such as submodularity and invariance under duality. As an application we use it to extend Tutte's linking theorem to finitary and to co-finitary matroids.
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 …
We prove a common generalization of the maximal independent arborescence packing theorem of Cs. Király and two of our earlier works about packing branchings in infinite digraphs.
We give axiomatic foundations for non-finitary infinite matroids with duality, in terms of independent sets, bases, circuits, closure and rank. This completes the solution to a problem of Rado of 1966.
As part of the recent developments in infinite matroid theory, there have been a number of conjectures about how standard theorems of finite matroid theory might extend to the infinite setting. These include base packing, base covering, and matroid intersection and union. We show that several of these conjectures are equivalent, so that each gives a perspective on the same central problem of infinite matroid theory. For finite matroids, these equivalences give new and simpler proofs for the finite theorems corresponding to these conjectures. This new point of view also allows us to extend, and…
The Packing/Covering Conjecture was introduced by Bowler and Carmesin motivated by the Matroid Partition Theorem by Edmonds and Fulkerson. A packing for a family $ (M_i: i\inΘ) $ of matroids on the common edge set $ E $ is a system $ (S_i: i\inΘ) $ of pairwise disjoint subsets of $ E $ where $ S_i $ is panning in $ M_i $. Similarly, a covering is a system $ (I_i: i\inΘ) $ with $\bigcup_{i\inΘ} I_i=E $ where $ I_i $ is independent in $ M_i $. The conjecture states that for every matroid family on $ E $ there is a partition $E=E_p \sqcup E_c$ such that $ (M_i \upharpoonright E_p: i\in Θ) $ admit…
We consider the class of graphs for which the edge connectivity is equal to the maximum number of edge-disjoint spanning trees, and the natural generalization to matroids, where the cogirth is equal to the number of disjoint bases. We provide descriptions of such graphs and matroids, showing that such a graph (or matroid) has a unique decomposition. In the case of graphs, our results are relevant for certain communication protocols.
We prove that if $ M $ and $ N $ are finitary matroids on a common countable edge set $ E $ then they admit a common independent set $I $ such that there is a bipartition $ E=E_{M}\cup E_{N} $ for which $ I\cap E_M $ spans $ E_M $ in $ M $ and $ I\cap E_N $ spans $ E_N $ in $ N $. It answers positively the Matroid Intersection Conjecture of Nash-Williams in the countable case.
Thin sums matroids were introduced to extend the notion of representability to non-finitary matroids. We give a new criterion for testing when the thin sums construction gives a matroid. We show that thin sums matroids over thin families are precisely the duals of representable matroids (those arising from vector spaces). We also show that the class of tame thin sums matroids is closed under duality and under taking minors, by giving a new characterisation of the matroids in this class. Finally, we show that all the matroids naturally associated to an infinite graph are tame thin sums matroids…
Given a mixed hypergraph $\mathcal{F}=(V,\mathcal{A}\cup \mathcal{E})$, functions $f,g:V\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}_+$ and an integer $k$, a packing of $k$ spanning mixed hyperarborescences is called $(k,f,g)$-flexible if every $v \in V$ is the root of at least $f(v)$ and at most $g(v)$ of the mixed hyperarborescences. We give a characterization of the mixed hypergraphs admitting such packings. This generalizes results of Frank and, more recently, Gao and Yang. Our approach is based on matroid intersection, generalizing a construction of Edmonds. We also obtain an algorithm for finding a minimum we…
One of the most intriguing unsolved questions of matroid optimization is the characterization of the existence of $k$ disjoint common bases of two matroids. The significance of the problem is well-illustrated by the long list of conjectures that can be formulated as special cases, such as Woodall's conjecture on packing disjoint dijoins in a directed graph, or Rota's beautiful conjecture on rearrangements of bases. In the present paper we prove that the problem is difficult under the rank oracle model, i.e., we show that there is no algorithm which decides if the common ground set of two matro…
Fortier et al. proposed several research problems on packing arborescences. Some of them were settled in that article and others were solved later by Matsuoka and Tanigawa and by Gao and Yang. The last open problem is settled in this article. We show how to turn an inductive idea used in the latter two articles into a simple proof technique that allows to relate previous results on arborescence packings. We show how a strong version of Edmonds' theorem on packing spanning arborescences implies Kamiyama, Katoh and Takizawa's result on packing reachability arborescences and how Durand de Gevigne…
We provide the directed counterpart of a slight extension of Katoh and Tanigawa's result on rooted-tree decompositions with matroid constraints. Our result characterises digraphs having a packing of arborescences with matroid constraints. It is a proper extension of Edmonds' result on packing of spanning arborescences and implies - using a general orientation result of Frank - the above result of Katoh and Tanigawa. We also give a complete description of the convex hull of the incidence vectors of the basic packings of arborescences and prove that the mimimum cost version of the problem can be…
Király in [On maximal independent arborescence packing, SIAM J. Discrete. Math. 30 (4) (2016), 2107-2114] solved the following packing problem: Given a digraph $D = (V, A)$, a matroid $M$ on a set $S = \{s_{1}, \ldots,s_{k} \}$ along with a map $π: S \rightarrow V$, find $k$ arc-disjoint maximal arborescences $T_{1}, \ldots ,T_{k}$ with roots $π(s_{1}), \ldots ,π(s_{k})$, such that, for any $v \in V$, the set $\{s_{i} : v \in V(T_{i})\}$ is independent and its rank reaches the theoretical maximum. In this paper, we give a new characterization for packing of maximal independent mixed arborescen…
One of the most important questions in matroid optimization is to find disjoint common bases of two matroids. The significance of the problem is well-illustrated by the long list of conjectures that can be formulated as special cases. Bérczi and Schwarcz showed that the problem is hard in general, therefore identifying the borderline between tractable and intractable instances is of interest. In the present paper, we study the special case when one of the matroids is a partition matroid while the other one is a graphic matroid. This setting is equivalent to the problem of packing rainbow spann…
This sequel to our paper (Infinite gammoids, 2014) considers minors and duals of infinite gammoids. We prove that a class of gammoids definable by digraphs not containing a certain type of substructure, called an outgoing comb, is minor-closed. Also, we prove that finite-rank minors of gammoids are gammoids. Furthermore, the topological gammoids introduced by Carmesin (Topological infinite gammoids, and a new Menger-type theorem for infinite graphs, 2014) are proved to coincide, as matroids, with the finitary gammoids. A corollary is that topological gammoids are minor-closed. It is a well-kno…
Finite strict gammoids, introduced in the early 1970's, are matroids defined via finite digraphs equipped with some set of sinks: a set of vertices is independent if it admits a linkage to these sinks. An independent set is maximal precisely if it admits a linkage onto the sinks. In the infinite setting, this characterization of the maximal independent sets need not hold. We identify a type of substructure as the unique obstruction to the characterization. We then show that the sets linkable onto the sinks form the bases of a (possibly non-finitary) matroid precisely when the substructure does…
In this paper, we introduce the concept of $b$-branchings in digraphs, which is a generalization of branchings serving as a counterpart of $b$-matchings. Here $b$ is a positive integer vector on the vertex set of a digraph, and a $b$-branching is defined as a common independent set of two matroids defined by $b$: an arc set is a $b$-branching if it has at most $b(v)$ arcs sharing the terminal vertex $v$, and it is an independent set of a certain sparsity matroid defined by $b$. We demonstrate that $b$-branchings yield an appropriate generalization of branchings by extending several classical r…
In this paper we fix 7 types of undirected graphs: paths, paths with prescribed endvertices, circuits, forests, spanning trees, (not necessarily spanning) trees and cuts. Given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ and two "object types" $\mathrm{A}$ and $\mathrm{B}$ chosen from the alternatives above, we consider the following questions. \textbf{Packing problem:} can we find an object of type $\mathrm{A}$ and one of type $\mathrm{B}$ in the edge set $E$ of $G$, so that they are edge-disjoint? \textbf{Partitioning problem:} can we partition $E$ into an object of type $\mathrm{A}$ and one of type $\mat…
A clutter is \emph{$k$-wise intersecting} if every $k$ members have a common element, yet no element belongs to all members. We conjecture that, for some integer $k\geq 4$, every $k$-wise intersecting clutter is non-ideal. As evidence for our conjecture, we prove it for $k=4$ for the class of binary clutters. Two key ingredients for our proof are Jaeger's $8$-flow theorem for graphs, and Seymour's characterization of the binary matroids with the sums of circuits property. As further evidence for our conjecture, we also note that it follows from an unpublished conjecture of Seymour from 1975. W…
