Tropical Caratheodory with Matroids


Abstract in English

Baranys colorful generalization of Caratheodorys Theorem combines geometrical and combinatorial constraints. Kalai-Meshulam (2005) and Holmsen (2016) generalized Baranys theorem by replacing color classes with matroid constraints. In this note, we obtain corresponding results in tropical convexity, generalizing the tropical colorful Caratheodory Theorem of Gaubert-Meunier (2010). Our proof is inspired by geometric arguments and is reminiscent of matroid intersection. In particular, we show that the topological approach fails in this setting. We also discuss tropical colorful linear programming and show that it is NP-complete. We end with thoughts and questions on generalizations to polymatroids, anti-matroids as well as examples and matroid simplicial depth.

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