English

Linear extension numbers of $n$-element posets

Combinatorics 2019-06-17 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

We address the following natural but hitherto unstudied question: what are the possible linear extension numbers of an nn-element poset? Let LE(n)\mathbf{LE}(n) denote the set of all positive integers that arise as the number of linear extensions of some nn-element poset. We show that LE(n)\mathbf{LE}(n) skews towards the "small" end of the interval [1,n!][1,n!]. More specifically, LE(n)\mathbf{LE}(n) contains all of the positive integers up to exp(cnlogn)\exp\left(c\frac{n}{\log n}\right) for some absolute constant cc, and LE(n)((n1)!,n!]<(n3)!|\mathbf{LE}(n) \cap ((n-1)!,n!]|<(n-3)!. The proof of the former statement involves some intermediate number-theoretic results about the Stern-Brocot tree that are of independent interest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1906.06036,
  title  = {Linear extension numbers of $n$-element posets},
  author = {Noah Kravitz and Ashwin Sah},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.06036},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:53:30.451Z