Positively oriented matroids are realizable (Q520737)

Summary: We prove da Silva's conjecture [\textit{I. P. F. da Silva}, ``Quelques propriétés des matroides orienté''. Paris: Univ. Paris VI (PhD Thesis) (1987)] that any positively oriented matroid is a positroid; that is, it can be realized by a set of vectors in a real vector space. It follows from this result and a result of the third author that the positive matroid Grassmannian (or positive MacPhersonian) is homeomorphic to a closed ball.