Peter R. W. McNamara ; Bruce E. Sagan - The Möbius function of generalized subword order

dmtcs:3016 - Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, January 1, 2012, DMTCS Proceedings vol. AR, 24th International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2012) - https://doi.org/10.46298/dmtcs.3016
The Möbius function of generalized subword order

Authors: Peter R. W. McNamara ; Bruce E. Sagan

Let $P$ be a poset and let $P^*$ be the set of all finite length words over $P$. Generalized subword order is the partial order on $P^*$ obtained by letting $u≤ w$ if and only if there is a subword $u'$ of $w$ having the same length as $u$ such that each element of $u$ is less than or equal to the corresponding element of $u'$ in the partial order on $P$. Classical subword order arises when $P$ is an antichain, while letting $P$ be a chain gives an order on compositions. For any finite poset $P$, we give a simple formula for the Möbius function of $P^*$ in terms of the Möbius function of $P$. This permits us to rederive in an easy and uniform manner previous results of Björner, Sagan and Vatter, and Tomie. We are also able to determine the homotopy type of all intervals in $P^*$ for any finite $P$ of rank at most 1.

Volume: DMTCS Proceedings vol. AR, 24th International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2012)
Section: Proceedings
Published on: January 1, 2012
Imported on: January 31, 2017
Keywords: Chebyshev polynomial, discrete Morse theory, minimal skipped interval, Möbius function, poset, subword order,[INFO.INFO-DM] Computer Science [cs]/Discrete Mathematics [cs.DM]