English

The root posets and their rich antichains

Combinatorics 2018-01-23 v2 Representation Theory

Abstract

Let Δ\Delta be a (connected) Dynkin diagram of rank n2n\ge 2 and Φ+=Φ+(Δ)\Phi_+ = \Phi_+(\Delta) the corresponding root poset (it consists of all positive roots with respect to a fixed root basis). The width of Φ+\Phi_+ is nn. We will show that Φ+\Phi_+ is "conical": it is the disjoint union of nn solid chains. The rich antichains in Φ+\Phi_+ are the antichains of cardinality n1n-1. It is well known that the number of rich antichains is equal to the cardinality of Φ+\Phi_+. The set R(Δ)\mathcal R(\Delta) of rich antichains in Φ+\Phi_+ can itself be considered as a poset which is quite similar, but not always isomorphic, to Φ+\Phi_+. We will show that there always exists a unique rich antichain AA such that any rich antichain is contained in the ideal generated by AA. For ΔE6\Delta\neq \Bbb E_6 all roots in AA have the same length, namely e2e_2, where e1e2ene_1 \le e_2 \le \dots \le e_n are the exponents of Δ.\Delta. For Δ=E6\Delta = \Bbb E_6, the antichain AA consists of four roots of length e2=4e_2 = 4 and one root of length 55.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1306.1593,
  title  = {The root posets and their rich antichains},
  author = {Claus Michael Ringel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.1593},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

This is a completely revised version, now with reference to the exponents. The (n-1)-antichains are now called rich antichains and there is an outline in which way the root poset can be recovered from the set of rich antichains

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:29:36.425Z