The topological representation of oriented matroids (Q2484012)

The authors give a new proof of Lawrence's Topological Representation Theorem for oriented matroids in the general case based on an earlier proof for the rank 3 case. Their proof uses the new notion of hyperline sequence which gives one more axiomatic for oriented matroids. Geometrically, a hyperline sequence captures the order of hyperplanes around a hyperline. Their proof is inductive and uses mainly the generalized Schönflies theorem from topology. As an application, they show that one can read an oriented matroid from an arrangement of embedded spheres of codimension one, even if wild spheres are involved.