Symmetry and positive definiteness in oriented matroids (Q1105613)

The authors' summary: ``We show the properties of a class of oriented matroids that properly generalizes the class of oriented matroids that can be represented by matrices of the form (I,-A), where A is a real \(n\times n\) symmetric matrix and I is the \(n\times n\) identity matrix. Several results from linear algebra about positive definiteness, symmetry, and eigenvalues are shown to have natural generalizations in the context of oriented matroids. The relationship among the oriented matroid generalizations of the linear concepts are seen to be analogous to the relationships among the original linear algebraic concepts.''