Reconstructibility of Matroid Polytopes

Abstract

We specify what is meant for a polytope to be reconstructible from its graph or dual graph, and we introduce the problem of class reconstructibility; i.e., the face lattice of the polytope can be determined from the (dual) graph within a given class. We provide examples of cubical polytopes that are not reconstructible from their dual graphs. Furthermore, we show that matroid (base) polytopes are not reconstructible from their graphs and not class reconstructible from their dual graphs; our counterexamples include hypersimplices. Additionally, we prove that matroid polytopes are class reconstructible from their graphs, and we present an $O(n^3)$ algorithm that computes the vertices of a matroid polytope from its $n$-vertex graph. Moreover, our proof includes a characterization of all matroids with isomorphic basis exchange graphs.