Orientations of chain groups (Q1904392)

Besides linear algebra versions of Minty's and Farkas' lemma, the goal of this paper is the following ``local-global theorem,'' formulated in Tutte's (1965) language of chain groups, and proved only in the special case where \(V\) is a ``regular chain group'' (the cycle space of a regular matroid). Theorem 3. \(K\) be an infinite (e.g., ordered) field, \(V \subseteq K^n\) a vector subspace, and \(\varphi : V \to R\) a linear function. If for every \(x \in V\) there is some \(r_x\in\{+1,-1\}^n\) such that \(\varphi(x)=\langle r_x,x\rangle\), then there is some \(r^*\in \{+1, -1\}^n\) such that \(\varphi (x) = \langle r^*, x \rangle\) for all \(x \in V\). Proof. For every \(r\in\{+1,-1\}^n\), either \(\varphi(x)=\langle r,x\rangle\) for all \(x\in V\), or \(V_r:=\{x\in V \mid \varphi (x) = \langle r,x \rangle\}\) is a proper linear subspace of \(V\). If the first alternative holds for some \(r \in \{+1, -1\}^n\), then we are done. Otherwise we note that \(K\) is infinite, hence \(V\) cannot be covered by the finite set of proper subspaces \(V_r\).