Polyhedra and parameter spaces for matroids over valuation rings

Abstract

In this paper we address two of the major foundational questions in the theory of matroids over rings. First, we provide a cryptomorphic axiomatisation, by introducing an analogue of the base polytope for matroids. Second, we describe a parameter space for matroids over a valuation ring, which turns out to be a tropical version of the Bott-Samelson varieties for the full flag variety. Thus a matroid over a valuation ring is a sequence of flags of tropical linear spaces a.k.a. valuated matroids.