A brief introduction to the theory of ordered sets and lattice theory is given. To illustrate proof techniques in the theory of ordered sets, a generalization of a conjecture of Daykin and Daykin, concerning the structure of posets that can be partitioned into chains in a ``strong'' way, is proved. The result is motivated by a conjecture of Graham's concerning probability correlation inequalities for linear extensions of finite posets.
Balogh, Bollobás and Morris (2006) have described a threshold phenomenon in the behavior of the profile of hereditary classes of ordered graphs. In this paper, we give an other look at their result based on the notion of monomorphic decomposition of a relational structure introduced in \cite{P-T-2013}. We prove that the class $\mathfrak S$ of ordered binary structures which do not have a finite monomorphic decomposition has a finite basis (a subset $\mathfrak A$ such that every member of $\mathfrak S$ embeds some member of $\mathfrak A$). In the case of ordered reflexive directed graphs, the b…
Over any partially ordered abelian group whose positive cone is closed in an appropriate sense and has finitely many faces, modules that satisfy a weak finiteness condition admit finite primary decompositions. This conclusion rests on the introduction of basic notions in the relevant generality, such as closedness of partially ordered abelian groups, faces and their coprimary modules, and finiteness conditions as well local and global support functors for modules over partially ordered groups.
Reflexive polytopes which have the integer decomposition property are of interest. Recently, some large classes of reflexive polytopes with integer decomposition property coming from the order polytopes and the chain polytopes of finite partially ordered sets are known. In the present paper, we will generalize this result. In fact, by virtue of the algebraic technique on Gröbner bases, new classes of reflexive polytopes with the integer decomposition property coming from the order polytopes of finite partially ordered sets and the stable set polytopes of perfect graphs will be introduced. Furt…
Intervals in binary or n-ary relations or other discrete structures generalize the concept of interval in a linearly ordered set. Join-irreducible partitions into intervals are characterized in the lattice of all interval decompositions of a set, in a general sense of intervals defined axiomatically. This characterization is used to show that the lattice of interval decompositions is balanced.
This paper is concerned with structures of general graphs with perfect matchings. We first reveal a partially ordered structure among factor-components of general graphs with perfect matchings. Our second result is a generalization of Kotzig's canonical partition to a decomposition of general graphs with perfect matchings. It contains a short proof for the theorem of the canonical partition. These results give decompositions which are canonical, that is, unique to given graphs. We also show that there are correlations between these two and that these can be computed in polynomial time.
Generalizing the decomposition of a connected planar graph into a tree and a dual tree, we prove a combinatorial analog of the classic Helmholz-Hodge decomposition of a smooth vector field. Specifically, we show that for every polyhedral complex, $K$, and every dimension, $p$, there is a partition of the set of $p$-cells into a maximal $p$-tree, a maximal $p$-cotree, and a collection of $p$-cells whose cardinality is the $p$-th Betti number of $K$. Given an ordering of the $p$-cells, this tri-partition is unique, and it can be computed by a matrix reduction algorithm that also constructs canon…
We study local cohomology of rings of global sections of sheafs on the Alexandrov space of a partially ordered set. We give a criterion for a splitting of the local cohomology groups into summands determined by the cohomology of the poset and the local cohomology of the stalks. The face ring of a rational pointed fan can be considered as the ring of global sections of a flasque sheaf on the face poset of the fan. Thus we obtain a decomposition of the local cohomology of such face rings. Since the Stanley-Reisner ring of a simplicial complex is the face ring of a rational pointed fan, our main …
Subgroups of the symmetric group $S_n$ act on powers of chains $C^n$ by permuting coordinates, and induce automorphisms of the ordered sets $C^n$. The quotients defined are candidates for symmetric chain decompositions. We establish this for some families of groups in order to enlarge the collection of subgroups $G$ of the symmetric group $S_n$ for which the quotient $B_n/G$ obtained from the $G$-orbits on the Boolean lattice $B_n$ is a symmetric chain order. The methods are also used to provide an elementary proof that quotients of powers of SCOs by cyclic groups are SCOs.
Young's lattice $L(m,n)$ consists of partitions having $m$ parts of size at most $n$, ordered by inclusion of the corresponding Ferrers diagrams. K. O'Hara gave the first constructive proof of the unimodality of the Gaussian polynomials by expressing the underlying ranked set of $L(m,n)$ as a disjoint union of products of centered rank-unimodal subsets. We construct a finer decomposition which is compatible with the partial order on Young's lattice, at the cost of replacing the cartesian product with a more general poset extension. As a corollary, we obtain an explicit chain decomposition whic…
We present a two term formula for the Möbius function of intervals in the poset of all permutations, ordered by pattern containment. The first term in this formula is the number of so called normal occurrences of one permutation in another. Our definition of normal occurrences is similar to those that have appeared in several variations in the literature on the Möbius function of this and other posets, but simpler than most of them. The second term in the formula is complicated, but we conjecture that it equals zero for a significant proportion of intervals. We present some cases where the sec…
The Boolean lattice $2^{[n]}$ is the family of all subsets of $[n]=\{1,\dots,n\}$ ordered by inclusion, and a chain is a family of pairwise comparable elements of $2^{[n]}$. Let $s=2^{n}/\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}$, which is the average size of a chain in a minimal chain decomposition of $2^{[n]}$. We prove that $2^{[n]}$ can be partitioned into $\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}$ chains such that all but at most $o(1)$ proportion of the chains have size $s(1+o(1))$. This asymptotically proves a conjecture of Füredi from 1985. Our proof is based on probabilistic arguments. To analyze our random…
Let $(P,\leq_P)$ and $(Q,\leq_Q)$ be finite partially ordered sets with $|P|=|Q|=d$, and $\mathcal{C}(P) \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and $\mathcal{C}(Q) \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ their chain polytopes. The twinned chain polytope of $P$ and $Q$ is the lattice polytope $Γ(\mathcal{C}(P),\mathcal{C}(Q)) \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ which is the convex hull of $\mathcal{C}(P) \cup (-\mathcal{C}(Q))$. It is known that twinned chain polytopes are Gorenstein Fano polytopes with the integer decomposition property. In the present paper, we study combinatorial properties of twinned chain polytopes. First, we will give t…
A frame in an $n$-dimensional Hilbert space $H_n$ is a possibly redundant collection of vectors $\{f_i\}_{i\in I}$ that span the space. A tight frame is a generalization of an orthonormal basis. A frame $\{f_i\}_{i\in I}$ is said to be scalable if there exist nonnegative scalars $\{c_i\}_{i\in I}$ such that $\{c_if_i\}_{i\in I}$ is a tight frame. In this paper we study the combinatorial structure of frames and their decomposition into tight or scalable subsets by using partially-ordered sets (posets). We define the factor poset of a frame $\{f_i\}_{i\in I}$ to be a collection of subsets of $I$…
Define a set of lines in $R^3$ to be ``stacked'' with respect to $v \in R^3$ if, from a vantage point far away in the direction of $v$, the lines are linearly ordered by the ``crossing over'' relation. Given a collection of skew lines and a point $v$, we ask, what is the largest stacked subset that must be present among the lines? This question, which appears in a 2000 paper of Erdos, Hajnal and Pach, is intimately related to the well-known Erdos-Hajnal conjecture via the Milnor-Thom theorem. It was recently resolved by a powerful and very general theorem of Alon, Pach, Pinchasi, Radoicic, and…
