Inequivalent representations of ternary matroids

AbstractThis paper considers representations of ternary matroids over fields other than GF(3). It is shown that a 3-connected ternary matroid representable over a finite field F has at most ¦F¦ - 2 inequivalent representations over F. This resolves a special case of a conjecture of Kahn in the affirmative

Confinement of matroid representations to subsets of partial fields

Let M be a matroid representable over a (partial) field P and B a matrix representable over a sub-partial field P' of P. We say that B confines M to P' if, whenever a P-representation matrix A of M has a submatrix B, A is a scaled P'-matrix. We show that, under some conditions on the partial fields, on M, and on B, verifying whether B confines M to P' amounts to a finite check. A corollary of this result is Whittle's Stabilizer Theorem. A combination of the Confinement Theorem and the Lift Theorem from arXiv:0804.3263 leads to a short proof of Whittle's characterization of the matroids representable over GF(3) and other fields. We also use a combination of the Confinement Theorem and the Lift Theorem to prove a characterization, in terms of representability over partial fields, of the 3-connected matroids that have k inequivalent representations over GF(5), for k = 1, ..., 6. Additionally we give, for a fixed matroid M, an algebraic construction of a partial field P_M and a representation A over P_M such that every representation of M over a partial field P is equal to f(A) for some homomorphism f:P_M->P. Using the Confinement Theorem we prove an algebraic analog of the theory of free expansions by Geelen et al.Comment: 45 page

Confinement of matroid representations to subsets of partial fields

Let M be a matroid representable over a (partial) field P and B a matrix representable over a sub-partial field P' of P. We say that B confines M to P' if, whenever a P-representation matrix A of M has a submatrix B, A is a scaled P'-matrix. We show that, under some conditions on the partial fields, on M, and on B, verifying whether B confines M to P' amounts to a finite check. A corollary of this result is Whittle's Stabilizer Theorem. A combination of the Confinement Theorem and the Lift Theorem from arXiv:0804.3263 leads to a short proof of Whittle's characterization of the matroids representable over GF(3) and other fields. We also use a combination of the Confinement Theorem and the Lift Theorem to prove a characterization, in terms of representability over partial fields, of the 3-connected matroids that have k inequivalent representations over GF(5), for k = 1, ..., 6. Additionally we give, for a fixed matroid M, an algebraic construction of a partial field P_M and a representation A over P_M such that every representation of M over a partial field P is equal to f(A) for some homomorphism f:P_M->P. Using the Confinement Theorem we prove an algebraic analog of the theory of free expansions by Geelen et al

On inequivalent representations of matroids over finite fields

Kahn conjectured in 1988 that, for each prime power q, there is an integer n(q) such that no 3-connected GF(q)-representable matroid has more than n(q) inequivalent GF(q)-representations. At the time, this conjecture was known to be true for q = 2 and q = 3, and Kahn had just proved it for q = 4. In this paper, we prove the conjecture for q = 5, showing that 6 is a sharp value for n(5). Moreover, we also show that the conjecture is false for all larger values of q. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc

Computing excluded minors for classes of matroids representable over partial fields

We describe an implementation of a computer search for the "small" excluded minors for a class of matroids representable over a partial field. Using these techniques, we enumerate the excluded minors on at most 15 elements for both the class of dyadic matroids, and the class of 2-regular matroids. We conjecture that there are no other excluded minors for the class of 2-regular matroids; whereas, on the other hand, we show that there is a 16-element excluded minor for the class of dyadic matroids.We describe an implementation of a computer search for the "small" excluded minors for a class of matroids representable over a partial field. Using these techniques, we enumerate the excluded minors on at most 15 elements for both the class of dyadic matroids, and the class of 2-regular matroids. We conjecture that there are no other excluded minors for the class of 2-regular matroids; whereas, on the other hand, we show that there is a 16-element excluded minor for the class of dyadic matroids

Totally free expansions of matroids

The aim of this paper is to give insight into the behaviour of inequivalent representations of 3-connected matroids. An element x of a matroid M is fixed if there is no extension M′ of M by an element x′ such that {x, x′} is independent and M′ is unaltered by swapping the labels on x and x′. When x is fixed, a representation of M.\x extends in at most one way to a representation of M. A 3-connected matroid N is totally free if neither N nor its dual has a fixed element whose deletion is a series extension of a 3-connected matroid. The significance of such matroids derives from the theorem, established here, that the number of inequivalent representations of a 3-connected matroid M over a finite field F is bounded above by the maximum, over all totally free minors N of M, of the number of inequivalent F-representations of N. It is proved that, within a class of matroids that is closed under minors and duality, the totally free matroids can be found by an inductive search. Such a search is employed to show that, for all r ≥ 4, there are unique and easily described rank-r quaternary and quinternary matroids, the first being the free spike. Finally, Seymour\u27s Splitter Theorem is extended by showing that the sequence of 3-connected matroids from a matroid M to a minor N, whose existence is guaranteed by the theorem, may be chosen so that all deletions and contractions of fixed and cofixed elements occur in the initial segment of the sequence. © 2001 Elsevier Science

Towards a matroid-minor structure theory

This paper surveys recent work that is aimed at generalising the results and techniques of the Graph Minors Project of Robertson and Seymour to matroids