Planar zero divisor graphs of partially ordered sets (Q2392025)

Let \(P\) be a poset (partially ordered set) with least element 0. The authors associate to \(P\) a graph \(G^{*}(P)\) whose vertex set is \(P\backslash \{0\}\) and where \(x\) is adjacent to \(y\) if and only if the only lower bound on \(\{x,y\}\) in \(P\) is \(0\). The authors prove various elementary properties of \(G^{*}(P)\), often using properties of minimal elements of \(P\backslash \{0\}\) which they call atoms. For example, they show that \(G^{*}(P)\) is connected if and only if it has no point incomparable with all others (except 0), and that the diameter of \(G^{*}(P)\) is at most 3 provided it is finite. They also investigate planarity of such graphs. It is easy, using the non-planarity of \(K_{5}\), that \(G^{*}(P)\) can be planar only if the number \(n\) of atoms is less than 5: the authors achieve a precise classification of when it is planar for such \(n\).