h-vectors of matroid complexes

We partition in classes the set of matroids of fixed dimension on a fixed vertex set. In each class we identify two special matroids, respectively with minimal and maximal h-vector in that class. Such extremal matroids also satisfy a long-standing conjecture of Stanley. As a byproduct of this theory we establish Stanley's conjecture in various cases, for example the case of Cohen-Macaulay type less than or equal to 3.