Minimizing setups in ordered sets of fixed width

A simply polynomial time algorithm is given for computing the setup number, or jump number, of an ordered set with fixed width. This arises as an interesting application of a polynomial time algorithm for solving a more general weighted problem in precedence constrained scheduling.     

On the width of an orientation of a tree

There are 2 ^n-1 ways in which a tree on n vertices can be oriented. Each of these can be regarded as the (Hasse) diagram of a partially ordered set. The maximal and minimal widths of these posets are determined. The maximal width depends on the bipartition of the tree as a bipartite graph and it can be determined in time O(n). The minimal width is one of [/2] or [/2]+1, where is the number of leaves of the tree. An algorithm of execution time O(n + ² log ) to construct the minimal width orientation is given.This research was partially funded by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada under Grant Number A4219.     

The complexity of the fixed point property

It is NP-complete to determine whether a given ordered set has a fixed point free order-preserving self-map. On the way to this result, we establish the NP-completeness of a related problem: Given ordered sets P and Q with t-tuples (p ₁, ... , p _t) and (q ₁, ... , q _t) from P and Q respectively, is there an order-preserving map f: P→Q satisfying f(p _i)≥q _i for each i=1, ... , t?     

Finding all closed sets: A general approach

We present a unifying theoretical and algorithmic approach to the problems to determine all closed sets of a closure operator, to do this up to isomorphism, and to determine the elements of certain ideals of a power set. This will be done by generalizing the concept of closure operators using the interplay of several orders of a power set.     

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.     

On the Boolean dimension of spherical orders

It is well known that if a planar order P is bounded, i.e. has only one minimum and one maximum, then the dimension of P (LD(P)) is at most 2, and if we remove the restriction that P has only one maximum then LD(P)3. However, the dimension of a bounded order drawn on the sphere can be arbitrarily large.The Boolean dimension BD(P) of a poset P is the minimum number of linear orders such that the order relation of P can be written as some Boolean combination of the linear orders. We show that the Boolean dimension of bounded spherical orders is never greater than 4, and is not greater than 5 in the case the poset has more than one maximal element, but only one minimum. These results are obtained by a characterization of spherical orders in terms of containment between circular arcs.Part of this work was carried out while both authors were visiting the Department of Applied Mathematics (KAM) of Charles University, Prague. The authors acknowledge support from the EU HCM project DONET.     

E-convex infix codes

Two partial orders that play an important role in the combinatorics of words, can be defined in a natural way on the free monoid X ^* generated by the finite alphabet X: the infix and the embedding orders. A set C of nonempty words is called an infix code (hypercode) over X if C is an antichain with respect to the infix (embedding) order. A set of words is said to be e-convex if it is convex with respect to the embedding order. Two characterizations of the e-convex infix codes are given as well as a sufficient condition for such codes to be finite. It is shown that the family EIC(X) of the e-convex infix codes with the empty word forms, under the operation of concatenation, a free submonoid of the free monoid B(X) of the biprefix codes and that the generating alphabet of EIC(X) is a sub-alphabet of the generating alphabet of B(X).This research was supported by Grant A7877 of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.     

On the structure of semigroups of idempotent matrices

We prove that any pure regular band of matrices admits a simultaneous LU decomposition in the standard form. In case that such a band forms a double band called a skew lattice, we obtain the standard form without the assumption of purity.     

The number of partial orders of fixed width

We investigate the approximate number of n-element partial orders of width k, for each fixed k. We show that the number of width 2 partial orders with vertex set {1, 2, ..., n} is

Computing the bump number with techniques from two-processor scheduling

Let (X, <) be a partially ordered set. A linear extension x ₁, x ₂, ... has a bump whenever x _i<x _i+1, and it has a jump whenever x _iand x _i+1are incomparable. The problem of finding a linear erxtension that minimizes the number of jumps has been studied extensively; Pulleyblank shows that it is NP-complete in the general case. Fishburn and Gehrlein raise the question of finding a linear extension that minimizes the number of bumps. We show that the bump number problem is closely related to the well-studied problem of scheduling unit-time tasks with a precedence partial order on two identical processors. We point out that a variant of Gabow's linear-time algorithm for the two-processor scheduling problem solves the bump number problem. Habib, Möhring, and Steiner have independently discovered a different polynomial-time algorithm to solve the bump number problem.Part of this work was done while the first author was a Research Student Associate at IBM Almaden Research Center. During the academic year his work is primarily supported by a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship and is supported in part by ONR contract N00014-85-C-0731.     

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.     

On the strong fixed point property

An ordered set which has the fixed point property but not the strong fixed point property is presentedSupported by NSERC Operating Grant A7884.Supported by NSERC Operating Grant 41702.     

The PT-order and the fixed point property

The PT-order, or passing through order, of a poset P is a quasi order defined on P so that ab holds if and only if every maximal chain of P which passes throug a also passes through b. We show that if P is chain complete, then it contains a subset X which has the properties that (i) each element of X is -maximal, (ii) X is a -antichain, and (iii) X is -dominating; we call such a subset a -good subset of P. A -good subset is a retract of P and any two -good subsets are order isomorphic. It is also shown that if P is chain complete, then it has the fixed point property if and only if a -good subset also has the fixed point property. Since a retract of a chain complete poset is also chain complete, the construction may be iterated transfinitely. This leads to the notion of the core of P (a -good subset of itself) which is the transfinite analogue of the core of a finite poset obtained by dismantling.Research partially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and The Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi province.Research supported by NSERC grant #69-0982.     

Retractability and the fixed point property for products

LetP, Q be ordered sets and letaP. IfP \ {a} is a retract ofP and setsP and {xP:x>p} (or its dual) have the fixed point property then, for each chain complete setP,P×Q has the fixed point property if and only if (P\{a})×Q has this property. This establishes the fixed point property for some products of ordered sets which are beyond the reach of all known product theorems.The work of the first of authors was supported in part by the K.B.N. Grant No. 2 2037 92 03.     

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.     

On the number of nondismantlable posets with the fixed point property

We give a lower bound for the number of orders on a finite set that are not dismantlable and have the fixed point property. To do so we also derive an upper bound for the number of orders on a finite set that are dismantlable.The author was partially funded by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-88-K-0455.     

Minimizing the jump number for partially ordered sets: A graph-theoretic approach

The purpose of this paper is to present a graph-theoretic approach to the jump number problem for N-free posets which is based on the observation that the Hasse diagram of an N-free poset is a line digraph. Therefore, to every N-free poset P we can assign another digraph which is the root digraph of the Hasse diagram of P. Using this representation we show that the jump number of an N-free poset is equal to the cyclomatic number of its root digraph and can be found (without producing any linear extension) by an algorithm which tests if a given poset is N-free. Moreover, we demonstrate that there exists a correspondence between optimal linear extensions of an N-free poset and spanning branchings of its root digraph. We provide also another proof of the fact that optimal linear extensions of N-free posets are exactly greedy linear extensions. In conclusion, we discuss some possible generalizations of these results to arbitrary posets.     

Cycle-free partial orders and chordal comparability graphs

This paper studies a number of problems on cycle-free partial orders and chordal comparability graphs. The dimension of a cycle-free partial order is shown to be at most 4. A linear time algorithm is presented for determining whether a chordal directed graph is transitive, which yields an O(n ²) algorithm for recognizing chordal comparability graphs. An algorithm is presented for determining whether the transitive closure of a digraph is a cycle-free partial order in O(n+m _t)time, where m _tis the number of edges in the transitive closure.     

Fast Algorithms for Finding O(Congestion + Dilation) Packet Routing Schedules

O (c+d) steps using constant-size queues, where c is the congestion of the paths in the network, and d is the length of the longest path. The proof, however, used the Lovász Local Lemma and was not constructive. In this paper, we show how to find such a schedule in time, with probability , for any positive constant β, where is the sum of the lengths of the paths taken by the packets in the network, and m is the number of edges used by some packet in the network. We also show how to parallelize the algorithm so that it runs in NC. The method that we use to construct the schedules is based on the algorithmic form of the Lovász Local Lemma discovered by Beck. Received: July 8, 1996