Involutions in incidence algebras. (Q2484234)

Rings of upper triangular matrices over fields \(F\) can sometimes best be considered as incidence algebras of collections of posets with coefficients in \(F\). It is then not surprising that mapping systems on such rings can often be usefully connected to mapping systems on related families of posets. Involutions are anti-isomorphisms of order 2 whose existence indicates the presence of certain underlying symmetries in the matrices and correspondingly in the associated posets also. The author exploits these connections skillfully to obtain conditions permitting descriptions, including all involutions of the full ring of all \(n\times n\) upper triangular matrices. Extensions to involutions of the complete ring of \(n\times n\) matrices over \(F\) of such involutions are then possible and determined as well.