Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Let and ℳ be subsets of a finite lattice L.
is said to be concordant with ℳ if, for every element x in L, either x is in ℳ or there exists an element x+ such that (CS1) the Möbius function μ(x, x+) ≠ 0 and (CS2) for every element j in
, x ∨ j ≠ x+. We prove that if
is concordant with ℳ, then the incidence matrix I(ℳ |
) has maximum possible rank |
|, and hence there exists an injection σ:
→ ℳ such that σ(j) ≥ j for all j in
. Using this, we derive several rank and covering inequalities in finite lattices. Among the results are generalizations of the Dowling-Wilson inequalities and Dilworth's covering theorem to semimodular lattices, and a refinement of Dilworth's covering theorem for modular lattices.