1

While reading the paper LATTICES WITH UNIQUE COMPLEMENTS by R. P. DILWORTH, I get to know that any number of weak additional restrictions are sufficient for a lattice with unique complement to be a boolean algebra, including properties like modular, etc. But I'm wondering whether the restriction like "finite" be sufficient enough. However, it's so difficult for me to prove or give a counterexample.

  • Don't search for a counter-example. It's true. But I must admit, I don't have a proof of it, right now. I'm not even sure I ever saw one. Perhaps reading this answer and the one linked there will help. I should bring your attention to the citation I make there from a paper of George Grätzer (one of the greatest lattice theorists ever) to emphasize the difficulty of the problem. – amrsa Dec 30 '21 at 09:44
  • I did some research and found the paper "Two Problems That Shaped a Century of Lattice Theory", in which R. P. Dilworth's proving the case of finite dimensional is mentioned. I don't know whether it's relevant to my question, 'cause I haven't found Dilworth's proof yet. – prime-ideal Dec 30 '21 at 15:38
  • If found a proof that being finite will suffice. It's from 1948 Birkhoff's book "Lattice Theory". The terminology isn't straightforward to me, so I'll try to answer in a terminology which I find easier to follow and try not to get entangled in the translation... – amrsa Dec 30 '21 at 16:46
  • The title seems to ask about whether certain finite lattices are distributive, but that term does not appear in the body of the Question. Instead the problem is stated, somewhat loosely, about conditions that imply the lattice is boolean. A little more exposition of the defining assumptions (e.g. what is a lattice, what is a unique complement, what is distributive) would improve the content for future Readers. – hardmath Jan 06 '22 at 16:46

1 Answers1

1

It is immediate that every finite lattice is complete and atomic, i.e., every element is above some atom.
So the following result yields that a finite uniquely complemented lattice is Boolean.

Theorem.[Theorem 16 in Chapter X of Birkhoff's Lattice Theory, 1948, page 170]
Let $\mathbf L$ be any complete atomic lattice with unique complements. Then $\mathbf L$ is isomorphic to the Boolean algebra of the subsets of its atoms.

Notice that it's not even asked in the hypothesis that $\mathbf L$ is atomistic (which is stronger than being atomic). We will see by the end of the proof that that will follow from the hypothesis.

Proof: Let us denote by $\mathcal At(\mathbf L)$ the set of atoms of $\mathbf L$. To $S \subseteq \mathcal At(\mathbf L)$, let $$\bigvee S = \bigvee \{ x : x \in S \}$$ and $$\bigwedge S' = \bigwedge \{ x' : x \in S \}.$$ It follows that $$\bigvee (S \cup T) = \bigvee S \vee \bigvee T$$ and $$\bigwedge(S \cup T)' = \bigwedge S' \wedge \bigwedge T'.$$ For each atom $x$ of $\mathbf L$, we have that $x' \prec 1$ ($x'$ is covered by $1$, that is, $x'<1$ and if $x'\leq y \leq 1$ then $y=x'$ or $y=1$). Indeed, if $x' \leq y \leq 1$, then either $x \leq y$ or $x \nleq y$; in the former case, $1 = x \vee x' \leq y$, whence $y=1$; in the later, $x \wedge y = 0$, and $x \vee y \geq x \vee x' = 1$, whence $y = x'$.
It follows that for $x \neq y$ in $\mathcal At(\mathbf L)$ we have $x \leq y'$, for otherwise $x \wedge y' = 0$ and $x \vee y' = 1$, yielding $x=y$ by the unique complementation. Hence, if $S,T \subseteq \mathcal At(\mathbf L)$ are such that $S \cap T = \varnothing$, then $$\bigvee S \leq \bigwedge T'.$$ Thus, denoting by $S^c$ the complement of $S$ in $\mathcal At(\mathbf L)$,

\begin{align} \bigvee S \wedge \bigvee S^c &\leq \bigwedge(S^c)' \wedge \bigwedge(S^{cc})'\\ &= \bigwedge(S^c)' \wedge \bigwedge S'\\ &= \bigwedge(S^c \cup S)'\\ &= \bigwedge(\mathcal At(\mathbf L))' \\ &= 0 \tag{$\dagger$} \end{align} Thus, $\mathcal At(\mathbf L) \cap {\downarrow}\bigvee S = S$ and so $\bigvee S \neq \bigvee T$, whenever $S \neq T$, and therefore the poset whose elements are the family $\{ \bigvee S : S \subseteq \mathcal At(\mathbf L) \}$, with the order inherited from $\mathbf L$ is isomorphic to the power-set $\wp(\mathcal At(\mathbf L))$, which is clearly a Boolean algebra.

It remains to show that $x = \bigvee S$ for some $S \subseteq \mathcal At(\mathbf L)$ and each $x \in L$. Let $$S_x = \{ a \in \mathcal At(\mathbf L) : a \leq x \}.$$ We will show that $x = \bigvee S_x$ (i.e., $\mathbf L$ is atomistic).
It is clear that the only atoms below $x \wedge \bigvee S_x^c$ are those which are in $S_x \cap S_x^c = \varnothing$, and so $x \wedge \bigvee S_x^c = 0$. On the other hand \begin{align} x \vee \bigvee S_x^c &\geq \bigvee S_x \vee \bigvee S_x^c\\ &= \bigvee (S_x \cup S_x^c)\\ &= \bigvee \mathcal At(\mathbf L)\\ &= 1. \end{align} Thus $x$ is the (unique) complement of $\bigvee S_x^c$. From ($\dagger$) and $$\bigvee S_x \vee \bigvee S_x^c = \bigvee (S_x \cup S_x^c) = \bigvee \mathcal At(\mathbf L) = 1,$$ it follows that $x = \bigvee S_x$.

amrsa
  • 12,917