Axioms for maximal vectors of an oriented matroid: A combinatorial characterization of the regions determined by an arrangement of pseudohyperplanes (Q1891363)

The maximal covectors \(W\in \{+, -\}^ n\) of an oriented matroid of rank \(r\) are in bijection with the regions of the corresponding oriented arrangement of \(n\) pseudospheres in \(S^{r-1}\); here \(W_ i =+\) denotes that the corresponding region lies on the positive side of the \(i\)-th pseudosphere. In this paper, the author proves a characterization for the collection \({\mathcal W}\) of all maximal covectors of an oriented matroid that had been conjectured in her 1987 Ph.D. thesis. This provides the first non- recursive such characterization. (The maximal vectors have the same axiomatization, by duality theory.) It is interesting also since the systems of maximal vectors and covectors do not have a counterpart for ordinary matroids. The proof is quite complicated, using recursive characterizations of maximal vector systems that had previously been obtained by Bienia and Cordovil, and by Handa, in a subtle inductive procedure. (It is not unusual in oriented matroid theory that the equivalence of different axiom systems is hard to prove. Nevertheless, a simpler proof would be desirable).