Reconstrucion of oriented matroids from Varchenko-Gelfand algebras

Abstract: The algebra of $R$-valued functions on the set of chambers of a real hyperplane arrangement is called the Varchenko-Gelfand (VG) algebra. This algebra carries a natural filtration by the degree with respect to Heaviside functions, giving rise to the associated graded VG algebra. When the coefficient ring $R$ is an integral domain of characteristic $2$, the graded VG algebra is known to be isomorphic to the Orlik-Solomon algebra. In this paper, we study VG algebras over coefficient rings of characteristic different from $2$, and investigate to what extent VG algebras determine the underlying oriented matroid structures. Our main results concern hyperplane arrangements that are generic in codimension $2$. For such arrangements, if $R$ is an integral domain of characteristic not equal to $2$, then the oriented matroid can be recovered from both the filtered and the graded VG algebras. We also formulate an algorithm that is expected to reconstruct oriented matroids from VG algebras in the case of general arrangements.