Skew lattices of matrices in rings

In [6] J. Leech introduced skew lattices in rings. In the present paper we study skew lattices in rings of matrices. We prove that every symmetric, normal skew lattice with a finite, distributive maximal lattice image can be embedded in a skew lattice of upper-triangular matrices.Received September 5, 2003; accepted in final form October 12, 2004.     

Convex partitions of a finite lattice

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the lattice of convex partitions for a lattice L. Then we will show some properties of this lattice. Finally, we will show that if the convex partition lattice of L is finite and modular if and only if L is a finite chain. Presented by R. McKenzie. Received December 16, 2004; accepted in final form March 7, 2006.     

The cardinality of FM(1+1+n)

The aim of this note is to develop a counting formula for the modular lattice FM(1+1+n) freely generated by two single elements and an n-element chain. This answers Problem 44 in Birkhoff [1] which asks one to determine FM(1+1+n). The proof of our recursive formula is based on the scaffolding method developed by R. Wille.     

Lattice generation of small equivalences of a countable set

Given a countable set A, let Equ(A) denote the lattice of equivalences of A. We prove the existence of a four-generated sublattice Q of Equ(A) such that Q contains all atoms of Equ(A). Moreover, Q can be generated by four equivalences such that two of them are comparable. Our result is a reasonable generalization of Strietz [5, 6] from the finite case to the countable one; and in spite of its essentially simpler proof it asserts more for the countable case than [2, 3].Dedicated to George Grätzer on his 60th birthdayThis research was supported by the NFSR of Hungary (OTKA), grant no. T7442.     

Sublattices of complete lattices with continuity conditions

Various embedding problems of lattices into complete lattices are solved. We prove that for any join-semilattice S with the minimal join-cover refinement property, the ideal lattice Id S of S is both algebraic and dually algebraic. Furthermore, if there are no infinite D-sequences in J(S), then Id S can be embedded into a direct product of finite lower bounded lattices. We also find a system of infinitary identities that characterize sublattices of complete, lower continuous, and join-semidistributive lattices. These conditions are satisfied by any (not necessarily finitely generated) lower bounded lattice and by any locally finite, join-semidistributive lattice. Furthermore, they imply M. Erné’s dual staircase distributivity.On the other hand, we prove that the subspace lattice of any infinite-dimensional vector space cannot be embedded into any ℵ₀-complete, ℵ₀-upper continuous, and ℵ₀-lower continuous lattice. A similar result holds for the lattice of all order-convex subsets of any infinite chain.Dedicated to the memory of Ivan RivalReceived April 4, 2003; accepted in final form June 16, 2004.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Finite modular congruence lattices

We consider the variety of modular lattices generated by all finite lattices obtained by gluing together some M₃’s. We prove that every finite lattice in this variety is the congruence lattice of a suitable finite algebra (in fact, of an operator group). Received February 26, 2004; accepted in final form December 16, 2004.     

A cover-preserving embedding of semimodular lattices into geometric lattices

Extending former results by G. Grätzer and E.W. Kiss (1986) [5] and M. Wild (1993) [9] on finite (upper) semimodular lattices, we prove that each semimodular lattice L of finite length has a cover-preserving embedding into a geometric lattice G of the same length. The number of atoms of our G equals the number of join-irreducible elements of L.     

The gallery distance of flags

An explicit formula for the gallery distance of two maximal flags in a vector space is given. The main tool of the proof is the Jordan-Hölder permutation. The result and its proof hold more generally for any semimodular lattice of finite height and with minor changes also for the distance of two chambers in the Bruhat-Tits building of the general linear group.     

Which posets have a scattered MacNeille completion?

A poset is order-scattered if it does not embed the chain η of the rational numbers. We prove that there are eleven posets such that N(P), the MacNeille completion of P, is order-scattered if and only if P embeds none of these posets. Moreover these posets are pairwise non-embeddable in each other. This result completes a previous characterisation due to Duffus, Pouzet, Rival [4]. The proof is based on the “bracket relation”: a famous result of F. Galvin.Dedicated to the memory of Ivan Rival.Received June 16, 2004; accepted in final form October 3, 2004.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Finite lattices and congruences. A survey

In the early forties, R.P. Dilworth proved his famous result: Every finite distributive lattice D can be represented as the congruence lattice of a finite lattice L. In one of our early papers, we presented the first published proof of this result; in fact we proved: Every finite distributive lattice D can be represented as the congruence lattice of a finite sectionally complemented lattice L.We have been publishing papers on this topic for 45 years. In this survey paper, we are going to review some of our results and a host of related results by others: Making L nice.If being nice is an algebraic property such as being semimodular or sectionally complemented, then we have tried in many instances to prove a stronger form of these results by verifying that every finite lattice has a congruence-preserving extension that is nice. We shall discuss some of the techniques we use to construct nice lattices and congruence-preserving extensions.We shall describe some results on the spectrum of a congruence of a finite sectionally complemented lattice, measuring the sizes of the congruence classes. It turns out that with very few restrictions, these can be as bad as we wish.We shall also review some results on simultaneous representation of two distributive lattices. We conclude with the magic wand construction, which holds out the promise of obtaining results that go beyond what can be achieved with the older techniques.In Celebration of the Sixtieth Birthday of Ralph N. McKenzieReceived November 26, 2002; accepted in final form June 18, 2004.     

A new lattice construction

We introduce a new construction for orders and lattices. This construction is used to create large locally finite lattice varieties with uncountably many subvarieties.Dedicated to the memory of Ivan RivalReceived October 7, 2003; accepted in final form July 13, 2004.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Comparability graphs of lattices

A theorem of N. Terai and T. Hibi for finite distributive lattices and a theorem of Hibi for finite modular lattices (suggested by R.P. Stanley) are equivalent to the following: if a finite distributive or modular lattice of rank d contains a complemented rank 3 interval, then the lattice is (d+1)-connected.In this paper, the following generalization is proved: Let L be a (finite or infinite) semimodular lattice of rank d that is not a chain (d∈N₀). Then the comparability graph of L is (d+1)-connected if and only if L has no simplicial elements, where z∈L is simplicial if the elements comparable to z form a chain.     

Special-valued l-groups and Abelian covers

This paper presents a new and independent proof of the theorem (proven first by Kopytov and Gurchenkov [7] and again by Reilly [10]) that covers of the Abelian l-variety are either representable or are Scrimger covers. The proof in this paper is based upon the l-Cauchy constructions of Ball [1]; once these are applied to the problem, the proof becomes elementary.     

A note on essentially convex orders

In this note, we determine precisely which partially ordered sets (posets) have the property that, whenever they occur as subposets of a larger poset, they occur there convexly, i.e., as convex subposets. As a corollary, we also determine which lattices have the property that, if they occur as sublattices of a finite distributive lattice L, then they also occur as closed intervals in L. Throughout, all sets will be finite.Dedicated to the memory of Ivan RivalReceived May 5, 2003; accepted in final form October 3, 2004.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

A note on sphere containment orders

Using the ideas of Scheinerman and Wierman [1] and of Hurlbert [2] we give a very short proof that the infinite order [2]×[3]× cannot be represented by containment of Euclidean balls in ad-dimensional space for anyd. Also we give representations of the orders [2]×[2]× and [3]×[3]×[3] by containment of circles in the plane.The work was financially supported by the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Research, Grant 93-011-1486     

Simplicial elimination schemes,extremal lattices and maximal antichain lattices

Fix a partial order P=(X, <). We first show that bipartite orders are sufficient to study structural properties of the lattice of maximal antichains. We show that all orders having the same lattice of maximal antichains can be reduced to one representative order (called the poset of irreducibles by Markowsky [14]). We then define the strong simplicial elimination scheme to characterize orders which have distributive lattice of maximal antichains. The notion of simplicial elimination corresponds to the decomposition process described in [14] for extremal lattices. This notion leads to simple greedy algorithms for distributivity checking, lattice recognition and jump number computation. In the last section, we give several algorithms for lattices and orders.     

Reflections on lower bounded lattices

Lattices in the variety of lower bounded lattices of rank k are characterized. A sufficient condition for a lattice to be lower bounded is given, and used to produce a new example of a non-finitely-generated lower bounded lattice. Lattices that are subdirect products of finite lower bounded lattices are characterized.In memory of Ivan RivalReceived September 18, 2003; accepted in final form October 5, 2004.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

On the complexity of diagram testing

In 1987, Neetil and Rödl [4] claimed to have proved that the problem of finding whether a given graphG can be oriented as the diagram of a partial order is NP-complete. A flaw was discovered in their proof by Thostrup [11]. Neetil and Rödl [5] have since corrected the proof, but the new version is rather complex. We give a simpler and more elementary proof, using a completely different approach.     

Chain and distributive coalgebras

We show that coalgebras whose lattice of right coideals is distributive are coproducts of coalgebras whose lattice of right coideals is a chain. Those chain coalgebras are characterized as finite duals of Noetherian chain rings whose residue field is a finite dimensional division algebra over the base field. They also turn out to be coreflexive. Infinite dimensional chain coalgebras are finite duals of left Noetherian chain domains. Given any finite dimensional division algebra D and D-bimodule structure on D, we construct a chain coalgebra as a cotensor coalgebra. Moreover if D is separable over the base field, every chain coalgebra of type D can be embedded in such a cotensor coalgebra. As a consequence, cotensor coalgebras arising in this way are the only infinite dimensional chain coalgebras over perfect fields. Finite duals of power series rings with coeficients in a finite dimensional division algebra D are further examples of chain coalgebras, which also can be seen as tensor products of D^∗, and the divided power coalgebra and can be realized as the generalized path coalgebra of a loop. If D is central, any chain coalgebra is a subcoalgebra of the finite dual of D[[x]].