Some remarks on nestings in the normalized matching posets of rank 3 (Q2279681)

Given a finite ranked poset \(P\), a \textit{chain decomposition} $\mathcal{C}$ of \(P\) is a partition of \(P\) into chains. If the chains in \(\mathcal{C}\) can be linearly ordered in such a way that the set of ranks of the elements of each chain contains the sets of ranks of its predecessors, then \(\mathcal{C}\) is termed a \textit{nested} chain decomposition. The poset \(P\) is called a \textit{normalized matching poset} if, whenever all elements of \(S\subseteq P\) are of the same rank, the inequality \(\frac{|S|}{r_i} \le \frac{|\Gamma_j(S)|}{r_j}\) holds, where \(\Gamma_j(S)\) is the set of elements of \(P\) that are of rank \(j\) and are related to some element of \(S\). It is shown that, given positive integers \(r_0<r_1<r_2\), any normalized matching poset of rank 3 having exactly \(r_i\) elements of rank \(i\) (\(i = 0,1,2\)) and exactly \(r_0\) elements of rank 3 possesses a nested chain decomposition when (i) \(r_2-1\) is a multiple of both \(r_0\) and \(r_1\) or (ii) there is an integer \(k\) for which \(kr_0\le r_1\le k(r_0+1)\). This represents progress toward a conjecture of Griggs.