Interlace polynomials for multimatroids and delta-matroids

Abstract

We provide a unified framework in which the interlace polynomial and several related graph polynomials are defined more generally for multimatroids and delta-matroids. Using combinatorial properties of multimatroids rather than graph-theoretical arguments, we find that various known results about these polynomials, including their recursive relations, are both more efficiently and more generally obtained. In addition, we obtain several interrelationships and results for polynomials on multimatroids and delta-matroids that correspond to new interrelationships and results for the corresponding graph polynomials. As a tool we prove the equivalence of tight 3-matroids and delta-matroids closed under the operations of twist and loop complementation, called vf-safe delta-matroids. This result is of independent interest and related to the equivalence between tight 2-matroids and even delta-matroids observed by Bouchet.