A chain theorem for matroids

AbstractTutte's Wheels-and-Whirls Theorem proves that if M is a 3-connected matroid other than a wheel or a whirl, then M has a 3-connected minor N such that |E(M)|−|E(N)|=1. Geelen and Whittle extended this theorem by showing that when M is sequentially 4-connected, the minor N can also be guaranteed to be sequentially 4-connected, that is, for every 3-separation (X,Y) of N, the set E(N) can be obtained from X or Y by successively applying the operations of closure and coclosure. Hall proved a chain theorem for a different class of 4-connected matroids, those for which every 3-separation has at most five elements on one side. This paper proves a chain theorem for those sequentially 4-connected matroids that also obey this size condition