On Optimization and Counting of Non-Broken Bases of Matroids

arXiv2305.03307MaRDI QIDQ6435447FDOQ6435447

Authors: Dorna Abdolazimi, Kasper Lindberg, Shayan Oveis Gharan 

Publication date: 5 May 2023

Abstract: Given a matroid $M=(E,calI)$, and a total ordering over the elements $E$, a broken circuit is a circuit where the smallest element is removed and an NBC independent set is an independent set in $calI$ with no broken circuit. The set of NBC independent sets of any matroid $M$ define a simplicial complex called the broken circuit complex which has been the subject of intense study in combinatorics. Recently, Adiprasito, Huh and Katz showed that the face of numbers of any broken circuit complex form a log-concave sequence, proving a long-standing conjecture of Rota. We study counting and optimization problems on NBC bases of a generic matroid. We find several fundamental differences with the independent set complex: for example, we show that it is NP-hard to find the max-weight NBC base of a matroid or that the convex hull of NBC bases of a matroid has edges of arbitrary large length. We also give evidence that the natural down-up walk on the space of NBC bases of a matroid may not mix rapidly by showing that for some family of matroids it is NP-hard to count the number of NBC bases after certain conditionings.

This page was built for publication: On Optimization and Counting of Non-Broken Bases of Matroids

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q6435447)