The dimension of the cartesian product of posets (Q807653)

A pair (x,y) of elements of a poset is called a nonforced pair if x, y are incomparable and if \(z<x\) implies \(z<y\) and \(y<w\) implies \(x<w\). The dimension of a poset P refers to the least positive integer t such that P is the intersection of t linear orders. Nonforced pairs are characterized in the Cartesian product of two posets and this is used to determine the dimension of \(P\times Q\), where P, Q are certain subposets of \(2^ n\) and \(2^ m\), respectively. Let \(S^ 0_ n\) denote the subposet of \(2^ n\) formed by its atoms and coatoms. Then (as is well-known) \(\dim (S^ 0_ n)=n\), and, by a result of Trotter, \(\dim (S^ 0_ n\times S^ 0_ n)=2n-2.\) This is generalized by establishing that for n,m\(\geq 3\), \(\dim (S^ 0_ n\times S^ 0_ m)=m+n-2.\) The dimension of certain other subposets of \(2^ n\times 2^ m\) are also calculated. There is some overlap between this paper and a paper of \textit{K. Reuter} [Order 6, 277-293 (1989; Zbl 0699.06004)].