Shellability of exponential structures (Q6351651)

An exponential structure is a sequence \(Q=(Q_ 1,Q_ 2,...)\) of posets satisfying: (E1) \(Q_ n\) has a 1 and all maximal chains have length n-1; (E2) For each minimal element \(\rho \in Q_ n\), \(U_{\rho}=\{x\in Q_ n|\) \(x\geq \rho \}\cong \Pi_ n\), the lattice of partitions of \([n]=\{1,...,n\}\); (E3) For any \(\pi \in Q_ n\), \(\pi\) has the same type \(| \pi | =(\lambda_ 1,...,\lambda_ k)\) in all copies of \(\Pi_ n\) in which it lies via the isomorphisms of (E2) and \(L_{\pi}=\{x\in Q_ n|\) \(x\leq \pi \}\cong Q_{\lambda_ 1}\times...\times Q_{\lambda_ k}\). Examples of exponential structures are generated by taking \(Q_ n=\Pi_ n^{(d)}\), the set of all partitions of [nd], with blocks of size divisible by d and ordered by refinement; \(Q_ n=\Pi_{n,r}\), which consists of all partitions \(\pi =B_ 1| B_ 2|...| B_ k\), where \(B_ i = (B_{i1},..., B_{ir})\), \(B_{is}\subseteq [n]\), \(| B_{i1}| =...= | B_{ir}|\), \(\cup B_ i=[n]\times... \times [n]\); \(Q_ n=\chi_ n=\{(G,\pi)|\) \(\pi\) is a coloring of \(G\}\), \(V(G)=n\), \(\pi =B_ 1|...| B_ k\) with \(x,y\in B_ i\) implying \(xy\not\in E(G)\), \((G,\pi)\leq (H,\sigma)\) iff \(\pi\leq \sigma\) in \(\Pi_ n\) and if x,y have different colors in \(\sigma\), then \(xy\in E(G)\) iff \(xy\in E(H)\); \(Q_ n=P_ n\), the collection of all direct sum decompositions of \(V_ n\), the n-dimensional vector space over GF(q) ordered by refinement. In this paper the author finds recursive atom orderings for \({\hat \Pi}_ n^{(d)}\) (add a unique minimum element), \({\hat \Pi}_{n,r}\) and \({\hat \chi}_ n\), thereby setting the question as to their shellability, providing more than an answer to a question of Richard Stanley, concerning the shellability of \({\hat \Pi}_ n^{(d)}\) which was also proven by M. Wachs. The author mentions that no recursive atom ordering for \(\hat P_ n\) was found, leaving the shellability question interesting and open in the last case.