Antimatroids and Balanced Pairs

We generalize the 1/3-2/3 conjecture from partially ordered sets to antimatroids: we conjecture that any antimatroid has a pair of elements x,y such that x has probability between 1/3 and 2/3 of appearing earlier than y in a uniformly random basic word of the antimatroid. We prove the conjecture for antimatroids of convex dimension two (the antimatroid-theoretic analogue of partial orders of width two), for antimatroids of height two, for antimatroids with an independent element, and for the perfect elimination antimatroids and node search antimatroids of several classes of graphs. A computer search shows that the conjecture is true for all antimatroids with at most six elements.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

The sorting order on a Coxeter group

Let $(W,S)$ be an arbitrary Coxeter system. For each word $\omega$ in the generators we define a partial order--called the {\sf $\omega$-sorting order}--on the set of group elements $W_\omega\subseteq W$ that occur as subwords of $\omega$. We show that the $\omega$-sorting order is a supersolvable join-distributive lattice and that it is strictly between the weak and Bruhat orders on the group. Moreover, the $\omega$-sorting order is a "maximal lattice" in the sense that the addition of any collection of Bruhat covers results in a nonlattice. Along the way we define a class of structures called {\sf supersolvable antimatroids} and we show that these are equivalent to the class of supersolvable join-distributive lattices.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures. Final version, to appear in Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series

The core of games on ordered structures and graphs

In cooperative games, the core is the most popular solution concept, and its properties are well known. In the classical setting of cooperative games, it is generally assumed that all coalitions can form, i.e., they are all feasible. In many situations, this assumption is too strong and one has to deal with some unfeasible coalitions. Defining a game on a subcollection of the power set of the set of players has many implications on the mathematical structure of the core, depending on the precise structure of the subcollection of feasible coalitions. Many authors have contributed to this topic, and we give a unified view of these different results