Symmetric Chain Decompositions of Linear Lattices (Q4348792)

A symmetric chain of a ranked partially ordered set \(P\) of rank \(n\) is a chain \(x_k\lessdot x_{k+1}\lessdot\cdots\lessdot x_{n-k}\) where the rank of each \(x_i\) is \(i\). A symmetric chain decomposition of \(P\) is a partition of \(P\) into symmetric chains. Let \(L_n(q)\) be the poset of all subspaces of an \(n\)-dimensional vector space over a field of \(q\) elements, ordered by inclusion. The authors present a difficult symmetric chain decomposition of \(L_n(q)\). The main tool is the Schubert normal form of matrices which describe in a bijective way the subspaces. An inductive as well as an explicit construction (using some bracketing algorithm) are given.