Hamiltonian Cycles and Symmetric Chains in Boolean Lattices

Abstract

Let B(n) be the subset lattice of $${\{1,2,\dots, n\}.}$$ { 1 , 2 , ? , n } . Sperner's theorem states that the width of B(n) is equal to the size of its biggest level. There have been several elegant proofs of this result, including an approach that shows that B(n) has a symmetric chain partition. Another famous result concerning B(n) is that its cover graph is hamiltonian. Motivated by these ideas and by the Middle Two Levels conjecture, we consider posets that have the Hamiltonian Cycle---Symmetric Chain Partition (HC-SCP) property. A poset of width w has this property if its cover graph has a hamiltonian cycle which parses into w symmetric chains. We show that the subset lattices have the HC-SCP property, and we obtain this result as a special case of a more general treatment.