A class of non-binary matroids with many binary minors (Q1817572)

Tutte proved that \(U_{2,4}\) is the only non-binary matroid with the property that both minors resulting from removing a single element are binary. \textit{J. G. Oxley} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 49, No.~2, 181-189 (1990; Zbl 0658.05018)], generalized this result by charaterizing non-binary matroids such that, after removal of any single element, at least one of the resulting matroids is binary. Here it is shown that a 3-connected non-binary matroid \(M\) with the property that at least half of the four possible minors arising from the removal of any two elements is either isomorphic to one of five exceptional matroids, or belongs to the classes \(U_{2,n}\) or \(U_{n-2,n}\) for \(n \geq 4\), or both the rank and the corank of \(M\) exceed \(2\), and \(M\) can be obtained from a \(3\)-connected binary matroid by relaxing one or two circuit-hyperplanes. This theorem is extended to characterize all non-binary matroids with the property that at least half of the minors arising from the removal of two elements are binary.