Fan-Extensions in Fragile Matroids

If S is a set of matroids, then the matroid M is S-fragile if, for every element e ∈ E(M), either M\e or M/e has no minor isomorphic to a member of S. Excluded-minor characterizations often depend, implicitly or explicitly, on understanding classes of fragile matroids. In certain cases, when M is a minor-closed class of S-fragile matroids, and N ∈M, the only members ofM that contain N as a minor are obtained from N by increasing the length of fans. We prove that if this is the case, then we can certify it with a finite case-analysis. The analysis involves examining matroids that are at most two elements larger than N .