Interval partitions and activities for the greedoid Tutte polynomial (Q679037)

The Tutte polynomial of a matroid is a two variable polynomial that can be used to calculate an abundant variety of enumerative invariants of the matroid; see \textit{T. Brylawski} and \textit{J. Oxley} [|Matroid applications, Encycl. Math. Appl. 40, 123-225 (1992; Zbl 0769.05026)]. There are at least three ways to define the Tutte polynomial of a matroid. By a recursive procedure via deletion and contraction, as the corank-nullity generating function and via basis activities. A greedoid [see \textit{B. Korte, L. Lovász}, and \textit{R. Schrader}, Algorithms and Combinatorics, 4. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1991; Zbl 0733.05023) for the basic definitions and properties] is a generalization of a matroid that in general fails to have the property that a subset of an independent set is independent, nevertheless all maximal independent sets are of like cardinality. In previous papers the authors have introduced a generalization of the Tutte polynomial to greedoids [see for example Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 107, No. 2, 287-298 (1989; Zbl 0677.05036), Discrete Math. 158, No. 1-3, 63-75 (1996; Zbl 0859.06001), and J. Graph Theory 17, No. 3, 433-442 (1993; Zbl 0781.05026)]. In these papers it has been shown that this approach generalizes the corank-nullity and deletion-contraction definition of the matroid Tutte polynomial. The paper under review shows how the greedoid Tutte polynomial can be computed by counting activities.