A note on roundedness in 4-connected matroids (Q1182586)

It was proved by \textit{R. E. Bixby} [Discrete Math. 8, 139-145 (1974; Zbl 0279.05027)] that if \(e\) is an element of a 2-connected matroid \(M\) and \(M\) has a \(U_{2,4}\)-minor, then \(M\) has a \(U_{2,4}\)-minor whose ground set contains \(e\). \textit{P. D. Seymour} [Combinatorica 1, 387-394 (1981; Zbl 0489.05020)] extended this by showing that, if one insists that \(M\) is 3-connected above, one can guarantee that, for any 2-element subset \(\{e,f\}\) of \(E(M)\), there is a \(U_{2,4}\)-minor of \(M\) that uses \(\{e,f\}\). Results of this type prompted \textit{R. E. Bixby} and \textit{C. R. Coullard} [Combinatorica 7, 231-242 (1987; Zbl 0639.05013)] to define a matroid \(N\) to be \((k,m)\)-rounded if \(N\) is \(k\)-connected having at least four elements such that, whenever \(M\) is a \(k\)-connected matroid having an \(N\)-minor and \(X\) is an \(m\)-element subset of \(E(M)\), there is an \(N\)- minor of \(M\) using \(X\). The reviewer [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 37, 189-197 (1984; Zbl 0535.05020)] showed that \(U_{2,4}\) is the only (3,2)-rounded matroid. As an exension of this, the author proves that, for \(k\geq 2\), a \((k,2)\)-rounded matroid has rank or corank less than \(k\). A corollary of this is that \(U_{2,4}\) is the only (4,2)-rounded matroid.