Symmetric chain

cosmos 23rd October 2017 at 12:15am
Chain set

A chain C1C2...CmC_1 \subseteq C_2 \subseteq ... \subseteq C_m in P(n) is symmetric if Ci+1=Ci+1|C_{i+1}| = |C_i| +1, for all i=1,...,.m1i=1, ..., .m-1, and C1+Cm=n|C_1| + |C_m| = n.

Sperner's lemma shows that there is a partition of the power set into (nn/2)\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor} chains. But these could be asymmetric.

Proposition: For n1n\geq 1, there is a partition of P(n) into symmetric chains.