A Grassmann Algebra For Matroids
This work is a preprint available from arXiv.org at arXiv:1510.04584v2.
The version of record is freely available to read.
Abstract
We introduce an idempotent analogue of the exterior algebra for which the theory of tropical linear spaces (and valuated matroids) can be seen in close analogy with the classical Grassmann algebra formalism for linear spaces. The top wedge power of a tropical linear space is its Plücker vector, which we view as a tensor, and a tropical linear space is recovered from its Plücker vector as the kernel of the corresponding wedge multiplication map. We prove that an arbitrary d-tensor satisfies the tropical Plücker relations (valuated exchange axiom) if and only if the dth wedge power of the kernel of wedge-multiplication is free of rank one. This provides a new cryptomorphism for valuated matroids, including ordinary matroids as a special case.