Real phase structures on matroid fans and matroid orientations

We introduce the notion of real phase structure on rational polyhedral fans in Euclidean space. Such a structure consists of an assignment of affine spaces over $mathbb{Z}/2mathbb{Z}$ to each top dimensional face of the fan subject to two conditions. Given an oriented matroid we can construct a real phase structure on the fan of the underlying matroid. Conversely, we show that from a real phase structure on a matroid fan we can produce an orientation of the underlying matroid. Thus real phase structures are cryptomorphic to matroid orientations. The topes of the orientated matroid are recovered immediately from the real phase structure. We also provide a direct way to recover the signed circuits of the oriented matroid from the real phase structure.