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Weighted exchange distance of basis pairs

Two pairs of disjoint bases $\mathbf{P}_1=(R_1,B_1)$ and $\mathbf{P}_2=(R_2,B_2)$ of a matroid $M$ are called equivalent if $\mathbf{P}_1$ can be transformed into $\mathbf{P}_2$ by a series of symmetric exchanges. In 1980, White conjectured that such a sequence always exists whenever $R_1\cup B_1=R_2\cup B_2$. A strengthening of the conjecture was proposed by Hamidoune, stating that minimum length of an exchange is at most the rank of the matroid. In our paper titled Weighted exchange distance of basis pairs, we propose a weighted variant of Hamidoune’s conjecture, where the weight of an exchange depends on the weights of the exchanged elements. We prove the conjecture for several matroid classes: strongly base orderable matroids, split matroids, graphic matroids of wheels, and spikes.