On minors avoiding elements in matroids (Q1180800)

The main result of the paper gives conditions for minors avoiding elements in matroids. Let \({\mathcal F}\) be a collection of 3-connected matroids, none a proper minor of another, such that if \(M\) is a 3- connected matroid having a proper \({\mathcal F}\)-minor and \(e\) is an element of \(M\), then \(M\) has an \({\mathcal F}\)-minor avoiding \(e\). \({\mathcal F}\) is \((k,\ell)\)-rounded, if every member of \({\mathcal F}\) is \(k\)-connected having at least four elements and the following condition holds: If \(M\) is a \(k\)-connected matroid having an \({\mathcal F}\)-minor and \(X\) is a subset of \(E(M)\) with at most \(\ell\) elements, then \(M\) has an \({\mathcal F}\)-minor using \(X\). The relationship between \((k,\ell)\)-rounded sets and \((k,m)\)-avoiding sets, for the cases \(k\in\{2,3\}\), is given by: Proposition 2.5. Suppose that \({\mathcal F}\) is \((k,n-m)\)-rounded, where \(n=\max\{| E(M)|:M\in{\mathcal F}\}\). Assume that \({\mathcal F}\) does not contain two members \(M_ 1\) and \(M_ 2\) such that \(M_ 1\) is isomorphic to an extension or coextension of \(M_ 2\). Then \({\mathcal F}\) is \((k,m)\)-avoiding. Another result is about a \((3,m)\)-avoiding set \({\mathcal F}\) of matroids that is closed under isomorphisms and suppose that no member of \({\mathcal F}\) is a proper minor of another; if \(W^ 2\in{\mathcal F}\), then either \({\mathcal F}\) is \(\{W^ 2\}\) or \(\{W^ 2,M(W_ 3)\}\), or \(m\geq 6\).