Matroid 4-Connectivity: A Deletion-Contraction Theorem

A 3-separation (A, B), in a matroid M, is called sequential if the elements of A can be ordered (a1 , ..., ak) such that, for i=3, ..., k, ([a1 , ..., a i], [ai+1 , ..., ak] _ B) is a 3-separation. A matroid M is sequentially 4-connected if M is 3-connected and, for every 3-separation (A, B) of M, either (A, B) or (B, A) is sequential. We prove that, if M is a sequentially 4-connected matroid that is neither a wheel nor a whirl, then there exists an element x of M such that either M"x or M x is sequentially 4-connected. 2001 Academic Press