Girth in $GF(q)$-representable matroids

Abstract

We prove a conjecture of Geelen, Gerards, and Whittle that for any finite field $GF(q)$ and any integer $t$, every cosimple $GF(q)$-representable matroid with sufficiently large girth contains either $M(K_t)$ or $M(K_t{)}^{\ast }$ as a minor.

7 pages, 1 figure