We introduce a noncommutative binary operation on matroids, called free product. We show that this operation respects matroid duality, and has the property that, given only the cardinalities, an ordered pair of matroids may be recovered, up to isomorphism, from its free product. We use these results to give a short proof of Welsh's 1969 conjecture, which provides a progressive lower bound for the number of isomorphism classes of matroids on an n-element set.
In this paper, we give a cancellation-free antipode formula (for uniform matroids) for the restriction-contraction matroid Hopf algebra, using the technique of splitting and merging via a sign-reversing involution. The cancellation-free formula expresses the antipode of uniform matroids as a sum over certain ordered set partitions.
We determine the smallest simple triangle-free binary matroids that have no five-element independent flat. This solves a special case of a conjecture of Nelson and Norin.
A simple binary matroid, viewed as a restriction of a finite binary projective geometry $PG(n-1,2)$, is $I_{1,t}$-free if for any rank-$t$ flat of $PG(n-1,2)$, its intersection with the matroid is not a one-element set. In this paper, we show that the simple $I_{1,t}$-free and triangle-free binary matroids have bounded critical number for any $t \geq 1$.
We study the combinatorial, algebraic and geometric properties of the free product operation on matroids. After giving cryptomorphic definitions of free product in terms of independent sets, bases, circuits, closure, flats and rank function, we show that free product, which is a noncommutative operation, is associative and respects matroid duality. The free product of matroids $M$ and $N$ is maximal with respect to the weak order among matroids having $M$ as a submatroid, with complementary contraction equal to $N$. Any minor of the free product of $M$ and $N$ is a free product of a repeated t…
It is known that a lattice path matroid polytope can be associated with two given noncrossing lattice paths on $\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}$ with the same end points. In this short note we give explicit formulae for the $f$-vector, toric $f$- and $g$-polynomials of a lattice path matroid polytope when two boundary paths enclose a hook shape.
A simple binary matroid is called $I_4$-free if none of its rank-4 flats are independent sets. These objects can be equivalently defined as the sets $E$ of points in $PG(n-1,2)$ for which $|E \cap F|$ is not a basis of $F$ for any four-dimensional flat $F$. We prove a decomposition theorem that exactly determines the structure of all $I_4$-free and triangle-free matroids. In particular, our theorem implies that the $I_4$-free and triangle-free matroids have critical number at most $2$.
In this paper, we give a cancellation-free antipode formula for the matroid-minor Hopf algebra. We then explore applications of this formula. For example, the cancellation-free formula expresses the antipode of uniform matroids as a sum over certain ordered set partitions. We also prove that all matroids over any hyperfield (in the sense of Baker and Bowler) have cancellation-free antipode formulas; furthermore, the cancellations in the antipode are independent of the hyperfield structure and only depend on the underlying matroid.
For each integer $n \geq 2$, we prove that, if $M$ is a simple rank-$r$ $PG(n-1,2)$-free binary matroid with $|M|>\left(1-\frac{3}{2^n}\right)2^r$, then there is a triangle-free corank-$(n-2)$ flat of $M$.
We introduce and study a natural variant of matroid amalgams. For matroids M(A) and N(B) such that M/(A-B)=N(B-A), we define a splice of M and N to be a matroid L on the union of A and B with L(B-A)=M and L/(A-B)=N. We show that splices exist for each such pair of matroids M and N; furthermore, there is a freest splice of M and N, which we call the free splice. We characterize when a matroid L(E) is the free splice of L\U and L/V for subsets U and V of E. We study minors of free splices and the interaction between free splice and several other matroid operations. Although free splice is not an…
A simple binary matroid is called claw-free if none of its rank-3 flats are independent sets. These objects can be equivalently defined as the sets $E$ of points in $\mathrm{PG}(n-1,2)$ for which $|E \cap P|$ is not a basis of $P$ for any plane $P$, or as the subsets $X$ of $\mathbb{F}_2^n$ containing no linearly independent triple $x,y,z$ for which $x+y,y+z,x+z,x+y+z \notin X$. We prove a decomposition theorem that exactly determines the structure of all claw-free matroids. The theorem states that claw-free matroids either belong to one of three particular basic classes of claw-free matroids,…
We prove, by means of an exact structural description, that every simple triangle-free binary matroid $M$ with $|M| > \tfrac{33}{128}2^{r(M)}$ has critical number at most $2$.
This paper is an initial inquiry into the structure of the Hopf algebra of matroids with restriction-contraction coproduct. Using a family of matroids introduced by Crapo in 1965, we show that the subalgebra generated by a single point and a single loop in the dual of this Hopf algebra is free.
We study the representability problem for torsion-free arithmetic matroids. By using a new operation called "reduction" and a "signed Hermite normal form", we provide and implement an algorithm to compute all the representations, up to equivalence. As an application, we disprove two conjectures about the poset of layers and the independence poset of a toric arrangement.
Dowling and Rhodes defined different lattices on the set of triples (Subset, Partition, Cross Section) over a fixed finite group G. Although the Rhodes lattice is not a geometric lattice, it defines a matroid in the sense of the theory of Boolean representable simplicial complexes. This turns out to be the direct sum of a complete matroid with a lift matroid of the complete biased graph over G. As is well known, the Dowling lattice defines the frame matroid over a similar biased graph. This gives a new perspective on both matroids and also an application of matroid theory to the theory of fini…
In this paper we describe a parallel algorithm for generating all non-isomorphic rank $3$ simple matroids with a given multiplicity vector. We apply our implementation in the HPC version of GAP to generate all rank $3$ simple matroids with at most $14$ atoms and a splitting characteristic polynomial. We have stored the resulting matroids alongside with various useful invariants in a publicly available, ArangoDB-powered database. As a byproduct we show that the smallest divisionally free rank $3$ arrangement which is not inductively free has $14$ hyperplanes and exists in all characteristics di…
The critical threshold of a (simple binary) matroid $N$ is the infimum over all $ρ$ such that any $N$-free matroid $M$ with $|M|>\rho2^{r(M)}$ has bounded critical number. In this paper, we resolve two conjectures of Geelen and Nelson, showing that the critical threshold of the projective geometry $PG(t-1,2)$ is $1-3\cdot2^{-t}$. We do so by proving the following stronger statement: if $M$ is $PG(t-1,2)$-free with $|M|>(1-3\cdot2^{-t})2^{r(M)}$, then the critical number of $M$ is $t-1$ or $t$. Together with earlier results of Geelen and Nelson [GN14] and Govaerts and Storme [GS06], this comple…
We construct an intersection product on tropical cycles contained in the Bergman fan of a matroid. To do this we first establish a connection between the operations of deletion and restriction in matroid theory and tropical modifications as defined by Mikhalkin. This product generalises the product of Allermann and Rau, and Allermann and also provides an alternative procedure for intersecting cycles which is not based on intersecting with Cartier divisors. Also, we simplify the definition in the case of one dimensional fan cycles in two dimensional matroidal fans and given an application of th…
We show that, for each real number $ε> 0$ there is an integer $c$ such that, if $M$ is a simple triangle-free binary matroid with $|M| \ge (\tfrac{1}{4} + ε) 2^{r(M)}$, then $M$ has critical number at most $c$. We also give a construction showing that no such result holds for any real number less than $\tfrac{1}{4}$. This shows that the "critical threshold" for the triangle is $\tfrac 1 4$. We extend the notion of critical threshold to every simple binary matroid $N$ and conjecture that, if $N$ has critical number $c\ge 3$, then $N$ has critical threshold $1-i\cdot 2^{-c}$ for some $i\in \{2,3…
We study the fan structure of Dressians $\Dr(d,n)$ and local Dressians $\Dr(\cM)$ for a given matroid $\cM$. In particular we show that the fan structure on $\Dr(\cM)$ given by the three term Plücker relations coincides with the structure as a subfan of the secondary fan of the matroid polytope $P(\cM)$. As a corollary, we have that a matroid subdivision is determined by its 3-dimensional skeleton. We also prove that the Dressian of the sum of two matroids is isomorphic to the product of the Dressians of the matroids. Finally we focus on indecomposable matroids. We show that binary matroids ar…
We introduce the matroid-minor coalgebra C, which has labeled matroids as distinguished basis, and coproduct given by splitting a matroid into a submatroid and complementary contraction all possible ways. We introduce two new bases for C; the first of these is is related to the distinguished basis by Mobius inversion over the rank-preserving weak order on matroids, the second by Mobius inversion over the suborder excluding matroids that are irreducible with respect to the free product operation. We show that the subset of each of these bases corresponding to the set of irreducible matroids is …
We introduce a construction of oriented matroids from a triangulation of a product of two simplices. For this, we use the structure of such a triangulation in terms of polyhedral matching fields. The oriented matroid is composed of compatible chirotopes on the cells in a matroid subdivision of the hypersimplex, which might be of independent interest. In particular, we generalize this using the language of matroids over hyperfields, which gives a new approach to construct matroids over hyperfields. A recurring theme in our work is that various tropical constructions can be extended beyond tropi…
Interaction between skew-representability, tensor products, extension properties, and rank inequalities
ELTE Eötvös Loránd University（罗兰大学）；HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics（匈牙利科学院阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所）；Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya（加泰罗尼亚理工大学）；London School of Economics and Political Science（伦敦政治经济学院）
An 'induced restriction' of a simple binary matroid $M$ is a restriction $M|F$, where $F$ is a flat of $M$. We consider the class $\mathcal{M}$ of all simple binary matroids $M$ containing neither a free matroid on three elements (which we call a 'claw'), nor a Fano plane as an induced restriction. We give an exact structure theorem for this class; two of its consequences are that the matroids in $\mathcal{M}$ have unbounded critical number, while the matroids in $\mathcal{M}$ not containing the clique $M(K_5)$ as an induced restriction have critical number at most $2$.
$q$-Matroids are defined on complemented modular support lattices. Minors of length 2 are of four types as in a "classical" matroid. Tutte polynomials $τ(x,y)$ of matroids are calculated either by recursion over deletion/contraction of single elements, by an enumeration of bases with respect to internal/external activities, or by substitution $x \to (x-1),\; y \to (y-1)$ in their rank generating functions $ρ(x,y)$. The $q$-analogue of the passage from a Tutte polynomial to its corresponding RGF is straight-forward, but the analogue of the reverse process $x \to (x-1),\; y \to (y-1)$ is more de…
We study a particular graded ring structure on the set of all loopfree matroids on a fixed labeled ground set, which occurs naturally in tropical geometry. The product is given by matroid intersection and the additive structure is defined by assigning to each matroid the indicator vector of its chains of flats. We show that this ring is generated in corank one, more precisely that any matroid can be written as a linear combination of products of corank one matroids. Moreover, we prove that a basis for the graded part of rank r matroids is given by the set of nested matroids and that the total …
Let K be a field, let R=K[x_1,..., x_m] be a polynomial ring with the standard Z^m-grading (multigrading), let L be a Noetherian multigraded R-module, and let F: E --> G be a finite free multigraded presentation of L over R. Given a choice S of a multihomogeneous basis of E, we construct an explicit canonical finite free multigraded resolution T(F, S) of the R-module L. In the case of monomial ideals our construction recovers the Taylor resolution. A main ingredient of our work is a new linear algebra construction of independent interest, which produces from a representation f over K of a matr…
In this article, we study freeness of hyperplane arrangements. One of the most investigated arrangement is a graphic arrangement. Stanley proved that a graphic arrangement is free if and only if the corresponding graph is chordal and Dirac showed that a graph is chordal if and only if the graph is obtained by "gluing" complete graphs. We will generalize Dirac's construction to simple matroids with modular joins introduced by Ziegler and show that every arrangement whose associated matroid is constructed in the manner mentioned above is divisionally free. Moreover, we apply the result to arrang…
Given a matroid together with a coloring of its ground set, a subset of its elements is called rainbow colored if no two of its elements have the same color. We show that if a binary matroid of rank $r$ is colored with exactly $r$ colors, then $M$ either contains a rainbow colored circuit or a monochromatic cut. As the class of binary matroids is closed under taking duals, this immediately implies that if $M$ is colored with exactly $n-r$ colors, then $M$ either contains a rainbow colored cut or a monochromatic circuit. As a byproduct, we give a characterization of binary matroids in terms of …
The chromatic polynomial P_G(q) of a loopless graph G is known to be nonzero (with explicitly known sign) on the intervals (-\infty,0), (0,1) and (1,32/27]. Analogous theorems hold for the flow polynomial of bridgeless graphs and for the characteristic polynomial of loopless matroids. Here we exhibit all these results as special cases of more general theorems on real zero-free regions of the multivariate Tutte polynomial Z_G(q,v). The proofs are quite simple, and employ deletion-contraction together with parallel and series reduction. In particular, they shed light on the origin of the curious…
We investigate the line arrangement that results from intersecting d complete flags in C^n. We give a combinatorial description of the matroid T_{n,d} that keeps track of the linear dependence relations among these lines. We prove that the bases of the matroid T_{n,3} characterize the triangles with holes which can be tiled with unit rhombi. More generally, we provide evidence for a conjectural connection between the matroid T_{n,d}, the triangulations of the product of simplices Delta_{n-1} x Δ_{d-1}, and the arrangements of d tropical hyperplanes in tropical (n-1)-space. Our work provides a …
Matroid bundles, introduced by MacPherson, are combinatorial analogues of real vector bundles. This paper sets up the foundations of matroid bundles, and defines a natural transformation from isomorphism classes of real vector bundles to isomorphism classes of matroid bundles, as well as a transformation from matroid bundles to spherical quasifibrations. The poset of oriented matroids of a fixed rank classifies matroid bundles, and the above transformations give a splitting from topology to combinatorics back to topology. This shows the mod 2 cohomology of the poset of rank k oriented matroids…
There is a convolution product on 3-variable partial flag functions of a locally finite poset that produces a generalized Möbius function. Under the product this generalized Möbius function is a one sided inverse of the zeta function and satisfies many generalizations of classical results. In particular we prove analogues of Phillip Hall's Theorem on the Möbius function as an alternating sum of chain counts, Weisner's theorem, and Rota's Crosscut Theorem. A key ingredient to these results is that this function is an overlapping product of classical Möbius functions. Using this generalized Möbi…
We propose a framework for optimal $t$-matchings excluding the prescribed $t$-factors in bipartite graphs. The proposed framework is a generalization of the nonbipartite matching problem and includes several problems, such as the triangle-free $2$-matching, square-free $2$-matching, even factor, and arborescence problems. In this paper, we demonstrate a unified understanding of these problems by commonly extending previous important results. We solve our problem under a reasonable assumption, which is sufficiently broad to include the specific problems listed above. We first present a min-max …
We study ordered matroids and generalized permutohedra from a Hopf theoretic point of view. Our main object is a Hopf monoid in the vector species of extended generalized permutahedra equipped with an order of the coordinates; this monoid extends the Hopf monoid of generalized permutahedra studied by Aguiar and Ardila. Our formula for the antipode is cancellation-free and multiplicity-free, and is supported only on terms that are compatible with the local geometry of the polyhedron. Our result is part of a larger program to understand orderings on ground sets of simplicial complexes (for insta…
Tuza (A conjecture, in Proceedings of the Colloquia Mathematica Societatis Janos Bolyai, 1981) conjectured that $τ(G) \le 2ν(G)$ for all graphs $G$, where $τ(G)$ is the minimum size of an edge set whose removal makes $G$ triangle-free, and $ν(G)$ is the maximum size of a collection of pairwise edge-disjoint triangles. Here, we generalise Tuza's conjecture to simple binary matroids that do not contain the Fano plane as a restriction. We prove that the geometric version of the conjecture holds for cographic matroids.
Given a linear space L in affine space A^n, we study its closure L' in the product of projective lines (P^1)^n. We show that the degree, multigraded Betti numbers, defining equations, and universal Grobner basis of its defining ideal I(L') are all combinatorially determined by the matroid M of L. We also prove I(L') and all of its initial ideals are Cohen-Macaulay with the same Betti numbers. In so doing, we prove that the initial ideals of I(L') are the Stanley-Reisner ideals of an interesting family of simplicial complexes related to the basis activities of M. We also describe the state poly…
