917 research outputs found
A module-theoretic approach to matroids
Speyer recognized that matroids encode the same data as a special class of
tropical linear spaces and Shaw interpreted tropically certain basic matroid
constructions; additionally, Frenk developed the perspective of tropical linear
spaces as modules over an idempotent semifield. All together, this provides
bridges between the combinatorics of matroids, the algebra of idempotent
modules, and the geometry of tropical linear spaces. The goal of this paper is
to strengthen and expand these bridges by systematically developing the
idempotent module theory of matroids. Applications include a geometric
interpretation of strong matroid maps and the factorization theorem; a
generalized notion of strong matroid maps, via an embedding of the category of
matroids into a category of module homomorphisms; a monotonicity property for
the stable sum and stable intersection of tropical linear spaces; a novel
perspective of fundamental transversal matroids; and a tropical analogue of
reduced row echelon form.Comment: 22 pages; v3 minor corrections/clarifications; to appear in JPA
Tropical cycles and Chow polytopes
The Chow polytope of an algebraic cycle in a torus depends only on its
tropicalisation. Generalising this, we associate a Chow polytope to any
abstract tropical variety in a tropicalised toric variety. Several significant
polyhedra associated to tropical varieties are special cases of our Chow
polytope. The Chow polytope of a tropical variety is given by a simple
combinatorial construction: its normal subdivision is the Minkowski sum of
and a reflected skeleton of the fan of the ambient toric variety.Comment: 22 pp, 3 figs. Added discussion of arbitrary ambient toric varieties;
several improvements suggested by Eric Katz; some rearrangemen
Constructions of new matroids and designs over GF(q)
A perfect matroid design (PMD) is a matroid whose flats of the same rank all
have the same size. In this paper we introduce the q-analogue of a PMD and its
properties. In order to do that, we first establish a new cryptomorphic
definition for q-matroids. We show that q-Steiner systems are examples of
q-PMD's and we use this q-matroid structure to construct subspace designs from
q-Steiner systems. We apply this construction to S(2, 3, 13; q) q-Steiner
systems and hence establish the existence of subspace designs with previously
unknown parameters
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