本文定义了对取子式与对偶封闭的多路拟阵类，给出计算其 Tutte 多项式的多项式时间算法，并从特殊横贯表示与平面图格路两个视角刻画其基活跃性和结构性质。
摘要：
我们引入了在取子式和对偶下均封闭的多路拟阵类。我们给出了一个用于计算多路拟阵 Tutte 多项式的多项式时间算法，描述了它们的基活跃性，并证明了一些基本结构性质。这项工作的关键要素是我们为这些拟阵发展的两个互补视角：一方面，多路拟阵是具有特殊类型表示的横贯拟阵；另一方面，多路拟阵的基可以看作某些平面图中的格路集合。
英文摘要：
We introduce the minor-closed, dual-closed class of multi-path matroids. We give a polynomial-time algorithm for computing the Tutte polynomial of a multi-path matroid, we describe their basis activities, and we prove some basic structural properties. Key elements of this work are two complementary perspectives we develop for these matroids: on the one hand, multi-path matroids are transversal matroids that have special types of presentations; on the other hand, the bases of multi-path matroids can be viewed as sets of lattice paths in certain planar diagrams.
Lattice path matroids and bicircular matroids are two well-known classes of transversal matroids. In the seminal work of Bonin and de Mier about structural properties of lattice path matroids, the authors claimed that lattice path matroids significantly differ from bicircular matroids. Recently, it was proved that all cosimple lattice path matroids have positive double circuits, while it was shown that there is a large class of cosimple bicircular matroids with no positive double circuits. These observations support Bonin and de Miers' claim. Finally, Sivaraman and Slilaty suggested studying t…
A lattice path matroid is a transversal matroid corresponding to a pair of lattice paths on the plane. A matroid base polytope is the polytope whose vertices are the incidence vectors of the bases of the given matroid. In this paper, we study facial structures of matroid base polytopes corresponding to lattice path matroids.
Lattice path matroids form a subclass of transversal matroids and were introduced by Bonin, de Mier and Noy. Transversal matroids are not well-quasi-ordered, even when the branch-width is restricted. Though lattice path matroids are not well-quasi-ordered, we prove that lattice path matroids of bounded branch-width are well-quasi-ordered.
We show that every lattice path matroid of rank at least two has a quite simple coline, also known as a positive coline. Therefore every orientation of a lattice path matroid is 3-colorable with respect to the chromatic number of oriented matroids introduced by J. Nešetřil, R. Nickel, and W. Hochstättler.
In this paper we investigate the number of integer points lying in dilations of lattice path matroid polytopes. We give a characterization of such points as polygonal paths in the diagram of the lattice path matroid. Furthermore, we prove that lattice path matroid polytopes are affinely equivalent to a family of distributive polytopes. As applications we obtain two new infinite families of matroids verifying a conjecture of De Loera et.~al. and present an explicit formula of the Ehrhart polynomial for one of them.
Fix two lattice paths $P$ and $Q$ from $(0,0)$ to $(m,r)$ that use East and North steps with $P $ never going above $Q$. Bonin et al. show that the lattice paths that go from $(0,0)$ to $(m,r)$ and remain bounded by $P$ and $Q$ can be identified with the bases of a particular type of transversal matroid, which we call it a lattice path matroid. In this paper, we consider properties of lattice path matroid polytopes. These are the polytopes associated to the lattice path matroids. We investigate their face structure, decomposition, triangulation, Ehrhart polynomial and volume.
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.
We give an explicit description of the poset of cells of Bergman complexes of Lattice Path Matroids and establish a criterion for its simpliciality, in terms of the shape of the bounding paths.
Motivated by Gröbner basis theory for finite point configurations, we define and study the class of "standard complexes" associated to a matroid. Standard complexes are certain subcomplexes of the independence complex that are invariant under matroid duality. For the lexicographic term order, the standard complexes satisfy a deletion-contraction-type recurrence. We explicitly determine the lexicographic standard complexes for lattice path matroids using classical bijective combinatorics.
Catalan numbers arise in many enumerative contexts as the counting sequence of combinatorial structures. In this work, we consider natural Markov chains on some of the realizations of the Catalan sequence. While our main result is in deriving an $O(n^2 \log n)$ bound on the mixing time in $L_2$ (and hence total variation) distance for the random transposition chain on Dyck paths, we raise several open questions, including the optimality of the above bound. The novelty in our proof is in establishing a certain negative correlation property among random bases of lattice path matroids, including …
A flag matroid can be viewed as a chain of matroids linked by quotients. Flag matroids, of which relatively few interesting families have previously been known, are a particular class of Coxeter matroids. In this paper we give a family of flag matroids arising from an enumeration problem that is a generalization of the tennis ball problem. These flag matroids can also be defined in terms of lattice paths and they provide a generalization of the lattice path matroids of [Bonin et al., JCTA 104 (2003)].
Path-width of matroids naturally generalizes the better known parameter of path-width for graphs, and is NP-hard by a reduction from the graph case. While the term matroid path-width was formally introduced by Geelen-Gerards-Whittle [JCTB 2006] in pure matroid theory, it was soon recognized by Kashyap [SIDMA 2008] that it is the same concept as long-studied so called trellis complexity in coding theory, later named trellis-width, and hence it is an interesting notion also from the algorithmic perspective. It follows from a result of Hlineny [JCTB 2006] that the decision problem, whether a give…
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 show that the toric ideal of a lattice path polymatroid is generated by quadrics corresponding to symmetric exchanges, and give a monomial order under which these quadrics form a Gröbner basis. We then obtain an analogous result for lattice path matroids.
We give a common matroidal generalisation of `A Cantor-Bernstein theorem for paths in graphs' by Diestel and Thomassen and `A Cantor-Bernstein-type theorem for spanning trees in infinite graphs' by ourselves.
Introduced by Ardila (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 2003), the Catalan matroid is obtained by defining the bases of the matroid using Dyck paths from $(0,0)$ to $(n,n)$. Further research has gone into the topic, with variants like lattice path matroids (introduced by Bonin, de Mier, and Noy (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 2003)) and shifted matroids (introduced independently by Klivans (2003), and Ardila) being studied intensively. In this short note, we introduce the Young matroid, an extension of the Catalan matroid, where the bases are defined using the standard Young tableaux of a fixed shape. This…
Let $M$ be a matroid without loops or coloops and let $T(M;x,y)$ be its Tutte polynomial. In 1999 Merino and Welsh conjectured that $$\max(T(M;2,0), T(M;0,2))\geq T(M;1,1)$$ holds for graphic matroids. Ten years later, Conde and Merino proposed a multiplicative version of the conjecture which implies the original one. In this paper we prove the multiplicative conjecture for the family of lattice path matroids (generalizing earlier results on uniform and Catalan matroids). In order to do this, we introduce and study particular lattice path matroids, called snakes, used as building bricks to ind…
The Holt-Klee theorem says that the graph of a $d$-polytope, with edges oriented by a linear function on $P$ that is not constant on any edge, admits $d$ independent monotone paths from the source to the sink. We prove that the digraphs obtained from oriented matroid programs of rank $d+1$ on $n+2$ elements, which include those from $d$-polytopes with $n$ facets, admit $d$ independent monotone paths from source to sink if $d \le 4$. This was previously only known to hold for $d\le 3$ and $n\le 6$.
We introduce thagomizer matroids and compute the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of a rank $n+1$ thagomizer matroid by showing that the coefficient of $t^k$ is equal to the number of Dyck paths of semilength $n$ with $k$ long ascents. We also give a conjecture for the $S_n$-equivariant Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of a thagomizer matroid.
Gottschalk and Vygen proved that every solution of the subtour elimination linear program for traveling salesman paths is a convex combination of more and more restrictive "generalized Gao-trees". We give a short proof of this fact, as a layered convex combination of bases of a sequence of increasingly restrictive matroids. A strongly polynomial, combinatorial algorithm follows for finding this convex combination, which is a new tool offering polyhedral insight, already instrumental in recent results for the $s-t$ path TSP.
The Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of a matroid was introduced by Elias, Proudfoot and Wakefield, whose properties need to be further explored. In this paper we prove that the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of fan matroids coincide with Motzkin polynomials, which was recently conjectured by Gedeon. As a byproduct, we determine the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of graphic matroids of squares of paths. We further obtain explicit formulas of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of wheel matroids and whirl matroids. We prove the real-rootedness of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of these matroids, which provide…
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…
Let $\mathcal{N}$ be a set of matroids. A matroid $M$ is strictly $\mathcal{N}$-fragile if $M$ has a member of $\mathcal{N}$ as minor and, for all $e \in E(M)$, at least one of $M\backslash e$ and $M/e$ has no minor in $\mathcal{N}$. In this paper we give a structural description of the strictly $\{U_{2,5},U_{3,5}\}$-fragile matroids that have six inequivalent representations over $\mathrm{GF}(5)$. Roughly speaking, these matroids fall into two classes. The matroids without an $\{X_8, Y_8, Y_8^{*}\}$-minor are constructed, up to duality, from one of two matroids by gluing wheels onto specified…
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…
We give a general multiplication-convolution identity for the multivariate and bivariate rank generating polynomial of a matroid. The bivariate rank generating polynomial is transformable to and from the Tutte polynomial by simple algebraic operations. Several identities, almost all already known in some form, are specializations of this identity. Combinatorial or probabilistic interpretations are given for the specialized identities.
We find the excluded minors for the minor-closed class of lattice path polymatroids as a subclass of the minor-closed class of Boolean polymatroids. Like lattice path matroids and Boolean polymatroids, there are infinitely many excluded minors, but they fall into a small number of easily-described types.
In this paper we present an explicit combinatorial description of a special class of facets of the secondary polytopes of hypersimplices. These facets correspond to polytopal subdivisions called multi-splits. We show a relation between the cells in a multi-split of the hypersimplex and nested matroids. Moreover, we get a description of all multi-splits of a product of simplices. Additionally, we present a computational result to derive explicit lower bounds on the number of facets of secondary polytopes of hypersimplices.
We show that the 4-variable generating function of certain orientation related parameters of an ordered oriented matroid is the evaluation at (x + u, y+v) of its Tutte polynomial. This evaluation contains as special cases the counting of regions in hyperplane arrangements and of acyclic orientations in graphs. Several new 2-variable expansions of the Tutte polynomial of an oriented matroid follow as corollaries. This result hold more generally for oriented matroid perspectives, with specific special cases the counting of bounded regions in hyperplane arrangements or of bipolar acyclic orientat…
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 the Z-polynomial of a matroid, which we define in terms of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial. We then exploit a symmetry of the Z-polynomial to derive a new recursion for Kazhdan-Lusztig coefficients. We solve this recursion, obtaining a closed formula for Kazhdan-Lusztig coefficients as alternating sums of multi-indexed Whitney numbers. For realizable matroids, we give a cohomological interpretation of the Z-polynomial in which the symmetry is a manifestation of Poincare duality.
Nonnegativity of the $g$-polynomial of split matroids
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Northwestern Polytechnical University（西北工业大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematical Sciences, Tianjin University of Technology（天津工业大学数学科学学院）
Jump systems are sets of integer vectors satisfying a simple axiom, generalizing matroids, also delta-matroids, and well-kown combinatorial examples such as degree sequences of subgraphs of a graph. It is useful to know if a set of vectors defined from combinatorial structures is a jump system: this has consequences for optimizing on the set, or on some derived sets of vectors. In this note we are mainly concerned in telling our proof of the following more than two decades old fact and its original, elementary proof for an example different from degree sequences: {\em Given an udirected graph …
We show that, if $α> 0$ is a real number, $n \ge 2$ and $\ell \ge 2$ are integers, and $q$ is a prime power, then every simple matroid $M$ of sufficiently large rank, with no $U_{2,\ell}$-minor, no rank-$n$ projective geometry minor over a larger field than $\GF(q)$, and satisfying $|M| \ge αq^{r(M)}$, has a rank-$n$ affine geometry restriction over $\GF(q)$. This result can be viewed as an analogue of the Multidimensional Density Hales-Jewett Theorem for matroids.
