The expected codimension of a matroid variety (Q2256053)

A matroid variety \(X(M)\) in the Grassmannian \(\mathrm{Gr}(k,n)\) is the closure of the set of points for which a particular set \(M\) of Plücker coordinates vanishes. This paper is an attempt to nail down a structural property of the notoriously ill-behaved matroid varieties. The author associates to \(M\), in purely combinatorial fashion, a positive integer \(\text{ec}(M)\), the \textit{expected codimension} of \(M\). In many cases, but not always, it equals the codimension of \(X(M)\) in \(\mathrm{Gr}(k,n)\). The main result states that positroid varieties, the matroid varieties of positrons, have expected codimension. Moreover, the expected codimension is a valuative matroid invariant.