Loose elements in binary and ternary matroids

Abstract

We call a matroid element "loose" if it is contained in no circuits of size less than the rank of the matroid. A matroid in which all elements are loose is a paving matroid. Acketa determined all binary paving matroids, while Oxley specified all ternary paving matroids. We characterize the binary matroids that contain a loose element. For ternary matroids with a loose element, we show that their size is linear in terms of their rank. Moreover, for a prime power $q$, we give a partial characterization of $GF(q)$-representable matroids that have two or more loose elements; we note Rajpal's partial characterization of $GF(q)$-representable paving matroids as a consequence.