Chain partitions of products of two chains (Q1284475)

The main result of this paper is the proof of the theorem: Let be \(n\geq k\) and let \((m_1,\dots,m_p)\), \(m_1\geq\cdots\geq m_p>0\), be a sequence of integers such that \(\sum^p_{i=1}m_i=nk\). There exists a partition of the product \({\mathbf n}\times{\mathbf k}\) (of \(n\)-element and \(k\)-element chains) into chains of cardinalities \(m_1,\dots,m_p\) if and only if \((m_1,\dots,m_p)\leq(f_1,\dots,f_p)\), \(f_i=n+k-(2i-1)\). The authors also prove theorems characterizing sequences of cardinalities of chains forming a covering of \({\mathbf n}\times{\mathbf k}\) and a packing into \({\mathbf n}\times{\mathbf k}\).