On the Compatible Sets Expansion of the Tutte Polynomial

Abstract

Kochol [6] gave a new expansion formula for the Tutte polynomial of a matroid using the notion of compatible sets, and asked how this expansion relates to the internal-external activities formula. Here, we provide an answer, which is obtained as a special case of a generalized version of the expansion formula to Las Vergnas’s trivariate Tutte polynomials of matroid perspectives [10]. The same generalization to matroid perspectives and bijection with activities have been independently proven by Kochol in [5] and [7] in parallel with this work, but using different methods. Kochol proves both results recursively using the contraction-deletion relations, whereas we give a more direct proof of the bijection and use that to deduce the compatible sets expansion formula from Las Vergnas’s activities expansion.