Matroid matching with Dilworth truncation (Q2476281)

The main theorem of the paper under review states that, given a hypergraph \(H=(V,E)\), if the rank function of the \((k,l)\)-matroid (also called \((k,l)\)-sparsity matroid) on the ground set \(E\) satisfies \(r(E(X)= \max(k| X| -l, 0)\) for every \(X\subseteq V\), then the matroid has the double circuit property as defined by \textit{A. Dress} and \textit{L. Lovász} in [``On some combinatorial properties of algebraic matroids,'' Combinatorica 7, 39--48 (1987; Zbl 0627.05016)]. From this, together with results from [\textit{L. Lovász}, ``Matroid matching and some applications,'' J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 28, 208--236 (1980; Zbl 0444.05031)] the author concludes that L. Lovász's max-min formula for matroid matchings holds for those sparsity matroids. It is pointed out that the result includes, as special case among others, the Tutte-Berge formula and solves, moreover, the maximum matching problem in the two-dimensional generic rigidity matroid. The proofs exploit the structure of double circuits.