On the lower length of the closed-set lattice of a tree (Q1916386)

Given a simple graph \(G = (V,E)\), then \(N(a) = \{x \mid ax \in E\} \subseteq V\) is the set of neighbors of \(a\). \(S \subseteq V\) is closed if \(a,b \in S \to N(a) \cap N(b) \subseteq S\). If \(L(G)\) \((\varnothing \in L(G))\) is the family of closed sets, then \(L(G) \) is closed under intersection and a lattice by set inclusion. If \(G\) is finite, the length \(l(\Gamma)\) of a chain \(\Gamma\) in \(l(G)\) is \(|\Gamma |- 1\) and the upper length \(l^* (L(G)) = \text{Max} \{l (\Gamma) \mid \Gamma\) is a chain in \(L(G)\}\), and the lower length \(l_* (L(G)) = \text{Min} \{l (\Gamma) \mid \Gamma\) is a maximal chain in \(L(G)\}\). If \(S\) has the property that \(d(u,v)\neq 1, 2\) for \(u,v \in S\), then \(S\) is sparse and \(\gamma (G) = \text{Max} \{|S |: S\) is a sparse set of \(G\}\) is related to \(l_* (L(G))\) for trees \(G = T\) by the identity \(l_* (L(T)) = n + 1 - \gamma (T)\), \(n = |T |\), as shown in this paper, permitting the authors to characterize all trees \(T\) for which \(l_* (L(T)) = \lceil n/2 \rceil + 1\), where \(l_* (L(T)) \geq \lceil n/2 \rceil + 1\) in general. They are able to provide other applications of the general equality, including improved demonstrations of previous results.