A continuation of The Theory of Matroids, (edited by N. White), this volume consists of a series of related surveys by top authorities on coordinatizations, matching theory, transversal and simplicial matroids, and studies of important matroid variants. An entire chapter is devoted to matroids in combinatorial optimization, a topic of current interest. Care has been taken to ensure a uniform style throughout, and to make a work that can be used as a reference or as a graduate textbook. Excercises are included.

This volume, the third in a sequence that began with The Theory of Matroids (1986) and Combinatorial Geometries (1987), concentrates on the applications of matroid theory to a variety of topics from geometry (rigidity and lattices), combinatorics (graphs, codes, and designs) and operations research (the greedy algorithm).

The theory of matroids is unique in the extent to which it connects such disparate branches of combinatorial theory and algebra as graph theory, lattice theory, design theory, combinatorial optimization, linear algebra, group theory, ring theory and field theory. Furthermore, matroid theory is alone among mathematical theories because of the number and variety of its equivalent axiom systems. Indeed, matroids are amazingly versatile and the approaches to the subject are varied and numerous. This book is a primer in the basic axioms and constructions of matroids. The contributions by various...