Matchings and Radon transforms in lattices II. Concordant sets

Abstract

AbstractLet and ℳ be subsets of a finite lattice L. is said to be concordant with ℳ if, for every element x in L, either x is in ℳ or there exists an element x+ such that (CS1) the Möbius function μ(x, x+) ≠ 0 and (CS2) for every element j in , x ∨ j ≠ x+. We prove that if is concordant with ℳ, then the incidence matrix I(ℳ | ) has maximum possible rank ||, and hence there exists an injection σ: → ℳ such that σ(j) ≥ j for all j in . Using this, we derive several rank and covering inequalities in finite lattices. Among the results are generalizations of the Dowling-Wilson inequalities and Dilworth's covering theorem to semimodular lattices, and a refinement of Dilworth's covering theorem for modular lattices.