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arXiv · 2209.03797

The excluded minors for three classes of 2-polymatroids having special types of natural matroids

Joseph E. Bonin·Kevin Long
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Abstract

If $\mathcal{C}$ is a minor-closed class of matroids, the class $\mathcal{C}'$ of integer polymatroids whose natural matroids are in $\mathcal{C}$ is also minor closed, as is the class $\mathcal{C}'_k$ of $k$-polymatroids in $\mathcal{C}'$. We find the excluded minors for $\mathcal{C}'_2$ when $\mathcal{C}$ is (i) the class of binary matroids, (ii) the class of matroids with no $M(K_4)$-minor, and, combining those, (iii) the class of matroids whose connected components are cycle matroids of series-parallel networks. In each case the class $\mathcal{C}$ has finitely many excluded minors, but that is true of $\mathcal{C}'_2$ only in case (ii). We also introduce the $k$-natural matroid, a variant of the natural matroid for a $k$-polymatroid, and use it to prove that these classes of 2-polymatroids are closed under 2-duality.

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Joseph E. Bonin, Kevin Long. 2022-09-08. The excluded minors for three classes of 2-polymatroids having special types of natural matroids. https://doi.org/10.1137/22m1521134

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