Semimodular Lattices and Semibuildings

In a ranked lattice, we consider two maximal chains, or “flags” to be i-adjacent if they are equal except possibly on rank i . Thus, a finite rank lattice is a chamber system. If the lattice is semimodular, as noted in [9], there is a “Jordan-Hölder permutation” between any two flags. This permutation has the properties of an Sn-distance function on the chamber system of flags. Using these notions, we define a W -semibuilding as a chamber system with certain additional properties similar to properties Tits used to characterize buildings. We show that finite rank semimodular lattices form an Sn-semibuilding, and develop a flag-based axiomatization of semimodular lattices. We refine these properties to axiomatize geometric, modular and distributive lattices as well, and to reprove Tits’ result that Sn-buildings correspond to relatively complemented modular lattices (see [16], Section 6.1.5).