Rees Products of Posets and Inequalities

OF DISSERTATION Tricia Muldoon Brown The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2009 Rees Products of Posets and Inequalities ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATIONOF DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Tricia Muldoon Brown Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Margaret A. Readdy, Professor of Mathematics Lexington, Kentucky 2009 Copyright c © Tricia Muldoon Brown 2009 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATIONOF DISSERTATION Rees Products of Posets and Inequalities In this dissertation we will look at properties of two different posets from different perspectives. The first poset is the Rees product of the face lattice of the n-cube with the chain. Specifically we study the Möbius function of this poset. Our proof techniques include straightforward enumeration and a bijection between a set of labeled augmented skew diagrams and barred signed permutations which label the maximal chains of this poset. Because the Rees product of this poset is Cohen-Macaulay, we find a basis for the top homology group and a representation of the top homology group over the symmetric group both indexed by the set of labeled augmented skew diagrams. We also show that the Möbius function of the Rees product of a graded poset with the t-ary tree and the Rees product of its dual with the t-ary tree coincide. We discuss labelings for Rees and Segre products in general, particularly the Rees product of the face lattice of a polytope with the chain. We also look at cases where the Möbius function of a poset is equal to the permanent of a matrix and we consider local h-vectors for the barycentric subdivision of the n-cube. In each section we state open conjectures. The second poset in this dissertation is the Dowling lattice. In particular we look at the k = 1 case, that is, the partition lattice. We study inequalities on the flag vector of the partition lattice via a weighted boustrophedon transform and determine a more generalized version for the Dowling lattice. We generalize a determinantal formula of Niven and conclude with conjectures and avenues of study.