A Counting of the Minimal Realizations of the Posets of Dimension Two

Pierre Ille1, Jean-Xavier Rampon2
1Institut de Mathématiques de Luminy CNRS-UPR 9016, 163 avenue de Luminy – Case 907, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France;ille@iml.univ-mrs.fr
2FST-Université de Nantes, 2 rue de la Houssinitre, BP 92208, 44322 Nantes Cedex 3, France

Abstract

The posets of dimension \(2\) are those posets whose minimal realizations have two elements, that is, which may be obtained as the intersection of two of their linear extensions. Gallai’s decomposition of a poset allows for a simple formula to count the number of the distinct minimal realizations of the posets of dimension \(2\). As an easy consequence, the characterization of M. El-Zahar and of N.W. Sauer of the posets of dimension \(2\), with an unique minimal realization, is obtained.