English

An uncertainty principle for M\"obius inversion on posets

Combinatorics 2026-03-03 v3

Abstract

We give conditions for a locally finite poset PP to have the property that for any functions f:PCf:P\to {\bf C} and g:PCg:P\to {\bf C} not identically zero and linked by the M\"obius inversion formula, the support of at least one of ff and gg is infinite. This generalises and gives an entirely poset-theoretic proof of a result of Pollack. Various examples and non-examples are discussed.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.02466,
  title  = {An uncertainty principle for M\"obius inversion on posets},
  author = {Marcel K. Goh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.02466},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Updated to match the jounral version. 7 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:32:30.158Z