# Equality in a matroidal circumference bound

 Importance: Medium ✭✭
 Author(s): Oxley, James Royle, Gordon
 Subject: Combinatorics » Matroid Theory
 Keywords: circumference
 Posted by: Gordon Royle on: November 2nd, 2007

\begin{question} Is the binary affine cube $AG(3,2)$ the only 3-connected matroid for which equality holds in the bound $$E(M) \leq c(M) c(M^*) / 2$$ where $c(M)$ is the circumference (i.e. largest circuit size) of $M$? \end{question}

If $M$ is a 2-connected matroid with at least two elements then it was proved in [LO] that $$E(M) \leq c(M) c(M^*) / 2$$ where $c(M)$ is the size of the largest circuit in $M$.

Equality can hold in this bound -- in particular the binary affine cube $AG(3,2)$ is an 8-element self-dual matroid with circumference 4. There are various graphic matroids for which equality holds, and these have been classified in [W] where it is shown that they are all series-parallel networks and hence not 3-connected.

This question is therefore asking whether $AG(3,2)$ is the sole $3$-connected example where equality holds; this is known to be true for all matroids on up to 9 elements.

(A variant of this question would be to ask if $AG(3,2)$ is the only non-graphic example other than trivial modifications like replacing every element with an equally sized parallel class.)

## Bibliography

% Example: %*[B] Claude Berge, Farbung von Graphen, deren samtliche bzw. deren ungerade Kreise starr sind, Wiss. Z. Martin-Luther-Univ. Halle-Wittenberg Math.-Natur. Reihe 10 (1961), 114. % %[CRS] Maria Chudnovsky, Neil Robertson, Paul Seymour, Robin Thomas: \arxiv[The strong perfect graph theorem]{math.CO/0212070}, % Ann. of Math. (2) 164 (2006), no. 1, 51--229. \MRhref{MR2233847} % % (Put an empty line between individual entries)

[LO] Lemos, Manoel; Oxley, James A sharp bound on the size of a connected matroid. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 353 (2001), no. 10, 4039--4056 \MRhref{MR1837219}

[W] Wu, Pou-Lin Extremal graphs with prescribed circumference and cocircumference. Discrete Math. 223 (2000), no. 1-3, 299--308 \MRhref{MR1782055}

* indicates original appearance(s) of problem.