Quasi-differential posets and cover functions of distributive lattices. I: A conjecture of Stanley (Q1976322)

The authors settle a conjecture of R. P. Stanley (1975) by characterizing all non-decreasing cover functions and the corresponding lattices. They define terms and state the conjecture precisely. They present the background material more directly related to the conjecture and give some basic examples. They also settle the conjecture by doing a case-by-case analysis of all the possible non-decreasing cover functions.