Dilworth's theorem

In mathematics, in the areas of order theory and combinatorics, Dilworth's theorem characterizes the width of any finite partially ordered set in terms of a partition of the order into a minimum number of chains. It is named for the mathematician Robert P. Dilworth (1950).

"Chain decomposition" redirects here. For the path decomposition, see Heavy path decomposition.

An antichain in a partially ordered set is a set of elements no two of which are comparable to each other, and a chain is a set of elements every two of which are comparable. A chain decomposition is a partition of the elements of the order into disjoint chains. Dilworth's theorem states that, in any finite partially ordered set, the largest antichain has the same size as the smallest chain decomposition. Here, the size of the antichain is its number of elements, and the size of the chain decomposition is its number of chains. The width of the partial order is defined as the common size of the antichain and chain decomposition.

A version of the theorem for infinite partially ordered sets states that, when there exists a decomposition into finitely many chains, or when there exists a finite upper bound on the size of an antichain, the sizes of the largest antichain and of the smallest chain decomposition are again equal.

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