The one-third–two-thirds conjecture for finite posets

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Let P=(X,≺)P=(X,\prec) be a finite poset, let E⁡(P)\operatorname{\mathcal{E}}(P) be its set of linear extensions, and write e(P)=∣E⁡(P)∣e(P)=|\operatorname{\mathcal{E}}(P)|. The one-third–two-thirds conjecture. If PP is not totally ordered, then there are distinct elements x,y∈Xx,y\in X such that

13≤∣L∈E⁡(P):L(x)<L(y)∣e(P)≤23.\frac13\leq \frac{|\\{L\in\operatorname{\mathcal{E}}(P):L(x)<L(y)\\}|}{e(P)}\leq\frac23.

This conjecture is open in full generality, although it is known for several special classes, including posets of width two, where the bounds are tight.

References

Primary source

Swee Hong Chan, Igor Pak and Greta Panova, “The cross-product conjecture for width two posets”, arXiv:2104.09009 (2022).

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