MATROIDS WITH NO strongqstrong +2)-POINT-LINE MINORS.pdfVIP

MATROIDS WITH NO (q + 2)-POINT-LINE MINORS JOSEPH E. BONIN ABSTRACT. It is known that a geometry with rank r and no minor isomorphic to the (q + 2)-point line has at most (qr − 1)/(q − 1) points, with strictly fewer points if r 3 and q is not a prime power. For q not a prime power and r 3, we show that qr −1 − 1 is an upper bound. For q a prime power and r 3, we show that any rank-r geometry with at least qr −1 points and no (q + 2)-point-line