Explicit semisymmetric chain decomposition of the partition lattice (Q1567679)

Let \(P\) be a ranked graded poset of rank \(n\). We say that the elements \(x_1,x_2,\dots,x_h\) form a symmetric chain if \(x_{i+1}\) covers \(x_i\) for \(i=1,\dots,h-1\) and \(\text{rank}(x_1)+\text{ rank}(x_h)=n\). If \(\text{ rank}(x_1)+\text{ rank}(x_h)\geq n\) the chain is called semisymmetric. It is known that there exists no symmetric chain decomposition of the partition lattice, because its existence would imply this poset is Sperner, which is not true. On the other hand a semisymmetric chain decomposition of this lattice is known. The main result of the paper is one more explicit construction for a symmetric chain decomposition of the partition lattice. It is shown that this new partition is not isomorphic to the known ones. The new method is based on a parenthesization procedure. A similar idea was used by Green and Kleitman to construct a symmetric chain decomposition of the Boolean lattice.