On combinatorial and projective geometry (Q913806)

This is a very dense paper, rich of ideas. I only quote some of the results achieved by the authors. They use the theory of Tutte groups, set up in a previous paper by them [Adv. Math. 77, No.1, 1-36 (1989; Zbl 0684.05013)], to extend the concept of cross ratios to matroids. When the matroid under consideration is in fact a projective geometry, the cross ratios as defined by them are in fact the classical ones. Matroid theoretic versions of Pappo's theorem and Dieudonné's non-commutative determinant are obtained. These are, in short, the most relevant results of this paper. At least, they are the easiest to report on in few words.