The diagonal of a pointed coalgebra and incidence-like structure (Q1079849)

Vector space decompositions of a pointed coalgebra C over a field reflecting properties of its diagonal map are used by Sweedler to classify the coalgebra, by Heyneman and Radford to discuss coreflexivity, and by Taft and Wilson to obtain results about Hopf algebras from the underlying coalgebra. However, this type of structure has been classified in full only in specific cases. Using the structure of the first term of the coradical filtration \textit{E. Taft} and \textit{R. Wilson} [J. Algebra 29, 27-32 (1974; Zbl 0282.16008)] gave a vector-space decomposition yielding some information about the highest-weight terms in the diagonal. In addition, the complete structure of the diagonal is known for incidence coalgebras (on a partially-ordered set), and for those coalgebras which are a sum of their pointed irreducible components (PIC's). In this paper, the result of Taft and Wilson is refined to obtain a generalization of the PIC case, which agrees with the natural structure in the case of incidence coalgebras. Further refinements are obtained by the use of certain invariants of the coalgebra, yielding a characterization of PIC coalgebras. Also, the class of generalized incidence coalgebras is characterized by use of these invariants, and the subclass of standard incidence coalgebras is isolated by homological arguments.