Elastic Elements in 3-Connected Matroids

Abstract

It follows by Bixby's Lemma that if $e$ is an element of a $3$-connected matroid $M$, then either $\textrm{co}(M\backslash e)$, the cosimplification of $M\backslash e$, or $\textrm{si}(M/e)$, the simplification of $M/e$, is $3$-connected. A natural question to ask is whether $M$ has an element $e$ such that both $\textrm{co}(M\backslash e)$ and $\textrm{si}(M/e)$ are $3$-connected. Calling such an element "elastic", in this paper we show that if $|E(M)|\ge 4$, then $M$ has at least four elastic elements provided $M$ has no $4$-element fans.