2010/06/08 by Dillon Mayhew, Mayhew, Dillon, Geoff Whittle +3
Computer Science · Mathematics · #05B35 #Advanced Graph Theory Research #Combinatorics (math.CO) #Complexity and Algorithms in Graphs #FOS: Mathematics #Limits and Structures in Graph Theory #math.CO #msc:05B35
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1006.1418
32 pages
openalex publication_date 2010/06/08 · arxiv created 2011/08/01 · arxiv updated 2011/08/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Fix a matroid N. A matroid M is N-fragile if, for each element e of M, at least one of M\e and M/e has no N-minor. The Bounded Canopy Conjecture is that all GF(q)-representable matroids M that have an N-minor and are N-fragile have branch width bounded by a constant depending only on q and N. A matroid N stabilizes a class of matroids over a field F if, for every matroid M in the class with an N-minor, every F-representation of N extends to at most one F-representation of M. We prove that, if Rota's conjecture is false for GF(q), then either the Bounded Canopy Conjecture is false for GF(q) or there is an infinite chain of GF(q)-representable matroids, each not stabilized by the previous, each of which can be extended to an excluded minor. Our result implies the previously known result that Rota's conjecture holds for GF(4), and that the classes of near-regular and sixth-roots-of-unity have a finite number of excluded minors. However, the bound that we obtain on the size of such excluded minors is considerably larger than that obtained in previous proofs. For GF(5) we show that Rota's Conjecture reduces to the Bounded Canopy Conjecture.