Boolean and distributive ordered sets: Characterization and representation by sets

Boolean ordered sets generalize Boolean lattices, and distributive ordered sets generalize distributive lattices. Ideals, prime ideals, and maximal ideals in ordered sets are defined, and some well-known theorems on Boolean lattices, such as the Glivenko-Stone theorem and the Stone representation theorem, are generalized to Boolean ordered sets. A prime ideal theorem for distributive ordered sets is formulated, and the Birkhoff representation theorem is generalized to distributive ordered sets. Fundamental are the embedding theorems for Boolean ordered sets and for distributive ordered sets.Financial support of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under the grant No. 201/93/0950 is gratefully acknowledged.     

Ladders in ordered sets

An ordered set P is said to have the 2-cutset property if for every element x of P there is a subset S of P whose elements are noncomparable to x, such that |S|2 and such that every maximal chain in P meets {x}S. It is shown that if P has the 2-cutset property and has width n then P contains a ladder of length [1/2(n–3)].     

Powers of ordered sets

Recently there has been significant progress in the study of powers of ordered sets. Much of this work has concerned cancellation laws for powers and uses these two steps. First, logarithmic operators are introduced to transform cancellation problems for powers into questions involving direct product decompositions. Second, refinement theorems for direct product decompositions are brought to bear. Here we present two results with the aim of highlighting these steps.Supported by NSF grant MCS 83-02054     

Compactness and subsets of ordered sets that meet all maximal chains

LetP be a chain complete ordered set. By considering subsets which meet all maximal chains, we describe conditions which imply that the space of maximal chains ofP is compact. The symbolsP ₁ andP ₂ refer to two particular ordered sets considered below. It is shown that the space of maximal chains (P) is compact ifP satisfies any of the following conditions: (i)P contains no copy ofP ₁ or its dual and all antichains inP are finite. (ii)P contains no properN and every element ofP belongs to a finite maximal antichain ofP. (iii)P contains no copy ofP ₁ orP ₂ and for everyx inP there is a finite subset ofP which is coinitial abovex. We also describe an example of an ordered set which is complete and densely ordered and in which no antichain meets every maximal chain.     

Arithmetic progressions in partially ordered sets

Van der Waerden's arithmetic sequence theorem—in particular, the density version of Szemerédi—is generalized to partially ordered sets in the following manner. Let w and t be fixed positive integers and >0. Then for every sufficiently large partially ordered set P of width at most w, every subset S of P satisfying |S||P| contains a chain a ₁, a ₂,..., a ₁ such that the cardinality of the interval [a _i, a _i+1] in P is the same for each i.Research supported by NSF grant DMS 8401281.Research supported by ONR grant N00014-85-K-0769.     

The Menger property for infinite ordered sets

It is shown that, if an ordered set P contains at most k pairwise disjoint maximal chains, where k is finite, then every finite family of maximal chains in P has a cutset of size at most k. As a corollary of this, we obtain the following Menger-type result that, if in addition, P contains k pairwise disjoint complete maximal chains, then the whole family, M (P), of maximal chains in P has a cutset of size k. We also give a direct proof of this result. We give an example of an ordered set P in which every maximal chain is complete, P does not contain infinitely many pairwise disjoint maximal chains (but arbitrarily large finite families of pairwise disjoint maximal chains), and yet M (P) does not have a cutset of size <x, where x is any given (infinite) cardinal. This shows that the finiteness of k in the above corollary is essential and disproves a conjecture of Zaguia.     

Inequalities for the greedy dimensions of ordered sets

Every linear extension L: [x ₁<x ₂<...<x _m ] of an ordered set P on m points arises from the simple algorithm: For each i with 0i<m, choose x _i+1 as a minimal element of P–{x _j :ji}. A linear extension is said to be greedy, if we also require that x _i+1 covers x _i in P whenever possible. The greedy dimension of an ordered set is defined as the minimum number of greedy linear extensions of P whose intersection is P. In this paper, we develop several inequalities bounding the greedy dimension of P as a function of other parameters of P. We show that the greedy dimension of P does not exceed the width of P. If A is an antichain in P and |P–A|2, we show that the greedy dimension of P does not exceed |P–A|. As a consequence, the greedy dimension of P does not exceed |P|/2 when |P|4. If the width of P–A is n and n2, we show that the greedy dimension of P does not exceed n ²+n. If A is the set of minimal elements of P, then this inequality can be strengthened to 2n–1. If A is the set of maximal elements, then the inequality can be further strengthened to n+1. Examples are presented to show that each of these inequalities is best possible.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation under ISP-80110451.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation under ISP-80110451 and DMS-8401281.     

On the dimensions of ordered sets of bounded degree

Let P be a partially ordered set. Define k = k (P) = max _p |{x P : p < x or p = x}|, i.e., every element is comparable with at most k others. Here it is proven that there exists a constant c (c < 50) such that dim P < ck(log k)². This improves an earlier result of Rödl and Trotter (dim P 2 k ²+2). Our proof is nonconstructive, depending in part on Lovász' local lemma.Supported in part by NSF under Grant No. MCS83-01867 and by a Sloan Research Fellowship.     

The fixed point property in ordered sets of width two

We consider the fixed point property (FPP) in an ordered set of width two (every antichain contains at most two elements). The necessary condition of the FPP and a number of equivalent conditions to the FPP in such sets is established. The product theorem is proved, as well.     

Decompositions of partially ordered sets into chains and antichains of given size

Every partially ordered set P on at least (1+o(1))n ³ elements can be decomposed into subposets of size n that are almost chains or antichains. This lower bound on P is asymptotically best possible. Similar results are presented for other types of combinatorial structures.Research supported in part by the AKA Research Fund of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, grant 1-3-86-264.     

Chain partitions of ordered sets

For natural numbers s and r and a finite poset P of height h, there exists a finite poset P of height H(s, r, h) such that for an arbitrary r-colouring of the s-chains of P, a monochromatically embedded copy of P can be found in P. A best possible upper bound for H(s, r, h) in terms of the well-known Ramsey numbers is given.     

Multifunctions and the fixed point property for products of ordered sets

Sufficient conditions for the fixed point property for products of two partially ordered sets are proved. These conditions are formulated in terms of multifunctions (functions with non-empty sets as values).     

Ordered sets with no chains of ideals of a given type

We study the possible order types of chains of ideals in an ordered set. Our main result is this. Given an indecomposable countable order type , there is a finite listA ₁ , ...,A _n of ordered sets such that for every ordered setP the setJ(P) of ideals ofP, ordered by inclusion, contains a chain of type if and only ifP contains a subset isomorphic to one of theA ₁ ^#x03B1; , ...,A _n . The finiteness of the list relies on the notion of better quasi-ordering introduced by Nash-Williams and the properties of scattered chains obtained by Laver.The results presented. here constitute the second chapter of the third cycle thesis presented by the second author before the Claude Bernard University, Lyon (July 1983).     

On minimizing jumps for ordered sets

An ordered set P is called K-free if it does not contain a four-element subset {a, b, c, d} such that a < b is the only comparability among these elements. In this paper we present a polynomial algorithm to find the jump number of K-free ordered sets.     

The length,the width and the cutset-number of finite ordered sets

The partially ordered set P is an (, , ) ordered set if the width of P, the length of any chain of P and the cut-set number . We will prove that if P is an (, , ) ordered set then P contains a simple (, , ) ordered set and use this result to prove that if P has the 3 cutset property, then width of P length of P+3.     

Forbidden configurations for distributive and modular ordered sets

As modular and distributive ordered sets generalize modular and distributive lattices, it is a natural question to ask whether there exist some forbidden configurations for those ordered sets. We present such configurations in the form of strong subsets and LU subsets.     

Infinite joins that are finitely join-irreducible

Complete lattices are studied which contain an element u which is not the join of a finite set of smaller elements, but is the join of all elements <u.This work was done while the first author was partly supported by NSF contract DMS 85-02330; during the completion of the article the second author was partly supported by NSF grant DMS 88-07043.     

Finite projective ordered sets

We show that quasiprojectivity and projectivity are equivalent properties for finite ordered sets of more than two elements.     

A minimax theorem for chain complete ordered sets

It is shown that if a chain complete ordered set does not have k+1 pairwise disjoint maximal chains for some finite k, then the minimum size of a cutset is equal to the maximum size of a collection of pairwise disjoint maximal chains. This answers a question of Pouzet and Zaguia.The author was supported in part by ONR grant N00014-85K-0494 and NSERC grants 69-3378, 69-0259, and 69-1325.