  In this self-contained paper, we present a theory of the piecewise linear
minimal valid functions for the 1-row Gomory-Johnson infinite group problem.
The non-extreme minimal valid functions are those that admit effective
perturbations. We give a precise description of the space of these
perturbations as a direct sum of certain finite- and infinite-dimensional
subspaces. The infinite-dimensional subspaces have partial symmetries; to
describe them, we develop a theory of inverse semigroups of partial bijections,
interacting with the functional equations satisfied by the perturbations. Our
paper provides the foundation for grid-free algorithms for the Gomory-Johnson
model, in particular for testing extremality of piecewise linear functions
whose breakpoints are rational numbers with huge denominators.
