Polyhedra and parameter spaces for matroids over valuation rings

Abstract: In this paper we address two of the major foundational questions in the theory of matroids over rings. First, we provide a cryptomorphic axiomatisation, by introducing an analogue of the base polytope for matroids. Second, we describe a parameter space for matroids over a valuation ring, which turns out to be a tropical version of the Bott-Samelson varieties for the full flag variety. Thus a matroid over a valuation ring is a sequence of flags of tropical linear spaces a.k.a. valuated matroids.