A new matroid lift construction and an application to group-labeled graphs (Q2073295)

Summary: A well-known result of \textit{T. Brylawski} [in: Theory of matroids, Encycl. Math. Appl. 26, 127--223 (1986; Zbl 0596.05013)] constructs an elementary lift of a matroid \(M\) from a linear class of circuits of \(M\). We generalize this result by constructing a rank-\(k\) lift of \(M\) from a rank-\(k\) matroid on the set of circuits of \(M\). We conjecture that every lift of \(M\) arises via this construction. We then apply this result to group-labeled graphs, generalizing a construction of \textit{T. Zaslavsky} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 47, No. 1, 32--52 (1989; Zbl 0714.05057)]. Given a graph \(G\) with edges labeled by a group, Zaslavsky's lift matroid \(K\) is an elementary lift of the graphic matroid \(M(G)\) that respects the group-labeling; specifically, the cycles of \(G\) that are circuits of \(K\) coincide with the cycles that are balanced with respect to the group-labeling. For \(k \geqslant 2\), when does there exist a rank-\(k\) lift of \(M(G)\) that respects the group-labeling in this same sense? For abelian groups, we show that such a matroid exists if and only if the group is isomorphic to the additive group of a non-prime finite field.