<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article  PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd"><article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en" article-type="research article"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">AM</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>Applied Mathematics</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="epub">2152-7385</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Scientific Research Publishing</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.4236/am.2014.54064</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">AM-43573</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="Discipline-v2"><subject>Physics&amp;Mathematics</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>
 
 
  Lattices Associated with a Finite Vector Space
 
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>engtian</surname><given-names>Yue</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sub>1</sub></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib></contrib-group><aff id="aff1"><label>1</label><addr-line>Office of Scientific Research, Langfang Teachers’ College, Langfang, China</addr-line></aff><author-notes><corresp id="cor1">* E-mail:<email>ymtxyz@126.com</email></corresp></author-notes><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>10</day><month>03</month><year>2014</year></pub-date><volume>05</volume><issue>04</issue><fpage>672</fpage><lpage>676</lpage><history><date date-type="received"><day>23</day>	<month>December</month>	<year>2013</year></date><date date-type="rev-recd"><day>23</day>	<month>January</month>	<year>2014</year>	</date><date date-type="accepted"><day>30</day>	<month>January</month>	<year>2014</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement>&#169; Copyright  2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. </copyright-statement><copyright-year>2014</copyright-year><license><license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>
 
 
   Let <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_25350b75-58f9-4a62-a286-92f9039c1eb0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> be a n-dimensional row vector space over a finite field <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_ce568cc6-a47a-4df8-8b46-fa52b8027608.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> For <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_be3ab967-9765-4c1c-981f-a4c2473f4f14.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, let <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_941eb55e-a83d-4677-b6f4-799cb8e88b54.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> be a <em>d</em>- dimensional subspace of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_a9d2c792-b457-4604-abdc-bf20a814493d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_62f067fc-342b-4e79-a963-c8a85733e3ae.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> denotes the set of all the spaces which are the subspaces of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_66581ede-0679-4010-a47f-1dd673b69c3f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and not the subspaces of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_941eb55e-a83d-4677-b6f4-799cb8e88b54.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> except <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_7e27c676-7cf0-4706-b039-182ccc681f94.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. We define the partial order on <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_62f067fc-342b-4e79-a963-c8a85733e3ae.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> by ordinary inclusion (resp. reverse inclusion), and then <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_62f067fc-342b-4e79-a963-c8a85733e3ae.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a poset, denoted by <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_d929d5fd-71d1-40ad-ba9b-3df9468f6608.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (resp. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_b6142314-2be5-453b-8477-834de6580daa.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>). In this paper we show that both <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_d929d5fd-71d1-40ad-ba9b-3df9468f6608.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_b6142314-2be5-453b-8477-834de6580daa.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are finite atomic lattices. Further, we discuss the geometricity of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_d929d5fd-71d1-40ad-ba9b-3df9468f6608.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="dit_b6142314-2be5-453b-8477-834de6580daa.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, and obtain their characteristic polynomials. 
 
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Vector Space; Geometric Lattice; Characteristic Polynomial</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front><body><sec id="s1"><title>1. Introduction</title><p>Let P be a poset. For<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1b464fc0-2eca-4a45-8736-1dd09a06710b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we say a covers b, denoted by<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\ceaa7719-3037-477d-af19-4c3620c58ac2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>; if <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5343b854-2fa1-401a-8d64-599d0691ad40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and there doesn’t exist <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5ede433c-ac5a-43de-b36a-59aa170cd32b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\802cdda4-8a3d-418b-97f6-ea6c9bbb4473.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. If P has the minimum (resp. maximum) element, then we denote it by 0 (resp. 1) and say that P is a poset with 0 (resp. 1). Let P be a finite poset with 0. By a rank function on P, we mean a function r from P to the set of all the integers such that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\c4630829-2a69-4ac7-8d39-27725b9400bd.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\3746ecab-997c-4d0b-8d74-509199fe3a9d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> whenever<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e3596bd8-8381-4eac-866a-333235159f40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Observe the rank function is unique if it exists. P is said to be ranked whenever P has a rank function.</p><p>Let P be a finite ranked poset with 0 and 1. The polynomial <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\6a996d7e-dc1a-418d-ad35-1ce475b4584d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is called the characteristic polynomial of P, where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\7302dde6-78d3-483c-9f09-0a58bbf6129c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\8f6546d6-e2a7-4a46-9e8f-f46da964cf3e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>function on P and r is the rank function of P. A poset P is said to be a lattice if both <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d0d7f5e9-9c95-4c29-95c1-a78589cd1b6d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\6cb7c8f6-5f4e-4b5e-b586-977cf06dfc6d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> exist for any two elements<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\8dba3d7c-4b19-42cb-9212-5520d86ec61f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1b03608e-6913-4278-8efb-3d6446bd285a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\016efcbc-68db-421c-9550-ef8080d91860.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are called the join and meet of a and b, respectively. Let P be a finite lattice with 0. By an atom in P, we mean an element in P covering 0. We say P is atomic if any element in <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\414a9ac8-d045-4f74-baca-ec3e24b38e2a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the join of atoms. A finite atomic lattice P is said to be a geometric lattice if P admits a rank function <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\aa6aba73-c78b-4d40-9a6b-45069473c6de.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> satisfying<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\88156d8c-b4d7-4a98-8012-6010f0ed9ed4.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\39d46f96-7086-4b72-aa01-f7b4016d9665.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Notations and terminologies about posets and lattices will be adopted from books [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref1">1</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref2">2</xref>] .</p><p>The special lattices of rough algebras were discussed in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref3">3</xref>] . The lattices generated by orbits of subspaces under finite (singular) classical groups were discussed in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref4">4</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref5">5</xref>] . Wang et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref6">6</xref>] -[<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref8">8</xref>] constructed some sublattices of the lattices in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref4">4</xref>] . The subspaces of a d-bounded distance-regular have similar properties to those of a vector space. Gao et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref9">9</xref>] -[<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref11">11</xref>] constructed some lattices and posets by subspaces in a d-bounded distance-regular graph. In this paper, we continue this research, and construct some new sublattices of the lattices in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref4">4</xref>] , discussing their geometricity and computing their characteristic polynomials.</p><p>Let <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\24a57b2c-7730-426a-b5d4-e6d3bb1b0044.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> be a finite field with q elements, where q is a prime power. For a positive integer<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\a4d400d3-f438-48fe-a1bd-f5b86d1028ec.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, let <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\08b66f3d-7197-4344-8219-470f918dcca8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> be the n-dimensional row vector space over<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\79d85da5-72e3-49ab-9404-107a5a31bc41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Let<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5c431d38-4cc3-473c-a87f-5a95792ea69d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. For a fixed<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\56b0503b-8166-45df-952a-22f0ab2ce04a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>-dimensional subspace <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\f541571c-7b06-4a46-8c48-7432fe040340.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\fd75c0df-aa2b-4479-afa7-07bb3bdc6754.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, let<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\c4356fab-000e-4634-bc16-ded2ec42926b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>If we define the partial order on <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\12ad3cb1-489e-458f-8d63-59b4c9d46958.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> by ordinary inclusion (resp. reverse inclusion), then <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\431f80e1-6bed-444c-a791-3e57b1b60b69.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a poset, denoted by <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\86334bf3-ef9a-40f1-a79b-1eea51634ca4.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (resp.<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\22e33534-0e0b-429d-8ee4-8faf3d3c1762.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>). In the present paper we show that both <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\6d18e9a6-ddf7-4f74-9348-2258c7e09fb7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5635f981-8daa-4287-94c1-245d2f8412ed.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are finite atomic lattices, discuss their geometricity and compute their characteristic polynomials.</p></sec><sec id="s2"><title>2. The Lattice <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\fdab8896-b04f-4dc7-9029-559a3b95b71c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></title><p>In this section we prove that the lattice <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\f1109401-b69d-4683-a69e-a5442acf6b86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a finite geometric lattice, and compute its characteristic polynomial. We begin with a useful proposition.</p><p>Proposition 2.1. ([<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref12">12</xref>] , Lemma 9.3.2 and [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.43573-ref13">13</xref>] , Corollaries 1.8 and 1.9). For<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\c6847d3f-f1a2-4935-bc79-1526d9ba83b1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, the following hold:</p><p>1) The number of k-dimensional subspaces contained in a given m-dimensional subspace of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\ee3ef069-585e-436d-a307-6d1b3db89174.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\7fc8846c-5c21-45b9-98cc-174eac9fa689.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>2) The number of m-dimensional subspaces containing a given k-dimensional subspace of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\ac81fa7f-4db0-4710-bc32-8210685ee8d8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\972e829e-a500-47ea-909c-c18b2014ed7b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>3) Let P be a fixed m-dimensional subspaces of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e3aed0f5-5e7c-441b-8d51-b6acfc338132.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Then the number of k-dimensional subspaces Q of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d183f299-d678-4fde-a7e3-d127e636af54.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> satisfying <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5afb918c-0fe8-46ae-92ce-b91b0cef0bf7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\dff8115d-20d7-4d27-bc0e-2f6b881b9625.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Theorem 2.2. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\b400111e-f067-489a-ab18-1691a841d8c4.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is a geometric lattice.</p><p>Proof. For any two elements<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\74b44cc9-523b-41f4-aba8-37770507be14.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\2614406c-d2b5-49a9-921e-43fd9178890a.png" /></p><p>Therefore <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\73541e63-fa51-40a9-84a4-4fcd24aec5c7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a finite lattice. Note that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\db302b18-b7a4-4453-a6dc-63ab229bc1a1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the unique minimum element. Let <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\b1c1282c-7c05-4634-bbfc-df468ca580a7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> be the set of all the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e4d9ac75-a6d4-4ff8-b671-d564b6fb17fe.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>-dimensional subspaces of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\fcc5ad5b-21a1-464f-a452-3a44fedb2914.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\86f6c760-74a2-4bf4-9b87-326fcad21730.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Then <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1017d4a1-804a-45e2-8d8e-c7db19752e89.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the set of all the atoms in<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\016deb33-6d6f-4c53-9709-ec678d700454.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. In order to prove <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\8eb0e7d8-6f1b-43a2-aa53-ca3ff7fb813d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is atomic, it suffices to show that every element of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\f2aa12a5-17fd-4fa9-ab68-1bebad2291f6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a join of some atoms. The result is trivial for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\39fa87a0-1210-42fc-8e3e-86c9bd641bbe.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Suppose that the result is true for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\ab915682-fa7b-4b3a-9613-1662ed542fb9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Let<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\0b6a4f32-ff8a-4251-8fcd-87771475a5dc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. By Proposition 2.1 and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\34c214e1-f10c-467d-ae16-5941b886f4fc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, the number of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\b8270141-9e71-49f3-bf79-9a3149ccf4c0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>-dimensional subspaces of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\b1469378-5d1b-42d6-a6f9-f6c7db3ae828.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> contained in <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\b7ac6749-ba85-4716-a7f8-304160e26ef3.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> at least is</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5750ecc4-464e-4103-845d-b8f5e0810cb1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Therefore there exist two different l-dimensional subspaces <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\9229b532-63ab-40a9-8178-bfa5733bed54.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5f3d3cfe-84e6-420e-acf9-11757628a8bc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\bda812fa-e66a-4e7b-bd38-52842aad2d23.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. By induction<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\81ef27d4-e6df-4001-89ff-2d9c75a37c35.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is a join of some atoms. Hence <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\99855df9-98e9-44db-94cb-c8a9c777e651.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a finite atomic lattice. For any <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\697e2fbe-208e-4b6e-9667-e2465d2f5c8f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> , define<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\77218cf8-b857-4cf1-855a-d22e0d242492.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. It is routine to check that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d6564c0d-f1a5-43fe-a618-2b1e75e323dc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the rank function on<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d522fac5-9ca8-49b7-ac86-0db1331dea61.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. For any<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\23230a9d-bc15-42f4-a094-eac5d24c3d57.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we have</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\b495ffbf-1815-428e-a891-2f20829fb648.png" /></p><p>Hence <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e2e7a171-c0d5-4fbc-bf9e-c22b3a38a25d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a geometric lattice. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\c3acddcc-46d4-49b0-bb1b-48119123540a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></p><p>Lemma 2.3. For any<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e3bd7b8d-76ce-4c45-8ca6-d768c2d09eab.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, suppose that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d03db427-2337-4029-91ca-ed6ca3fee81a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\9ab9b330-2bfa-4ea3-b13e-0490ff0af424.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\8954d503-20ec-46af-9434-2207da133847.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Then the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1ff9dbf4-8ec1-46d3-8721-75df367c4542.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> function of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\500b3ad0-67c5-4bd0-b6a8-812401e54375.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\5798a805-0ec5-48a9-a345-4b9224b67209.png" /></p><p>Proof. The <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\9f57c6d0-2b55-4c5d-93ea-7a58e5945ff2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> function of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\3e5ce313-490e-4b37-a411-fd6c6fe341e4.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\0e1711b9-80b1-4c3c-9a03-6b25688ee708.png" /></p><p>By Proposition 2.1, we have</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\7b5bf3eb-15ed-4b1d-a3e6-501058bf8164.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Thus, the assertion follows. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\7d639c1e-719a-4507-81c6-2090f8b9e28f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></p><p>Theorem 2.4. The characteristic polynomial of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d6ce0e94-ae65-422f-b593-31f57a7a09f5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\55f9410b-878c-41d8-89b1-72af2ce85e92.png" /></p><p>Proof. By Proposition 2.1 and Lemma 2.3, we have</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\1b3b3c3c-ba54-4c7b-b63f-dc67ccbce50e.png" /></p></sec><sec id="s3"><title>3. The Lattice <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\356d5d58-7cf0-44b9-9971-23760f58b9f5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></title><p>In this section we prove that the lattice <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\153077e7-20cd-4ba1-a969-283ead8e1f59.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a finite atomic lattice, classify its geometricity and compute its characteristic polynomial.</p><p>Theorem 3.1. The following hold:</p><p>1) <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\76e22d3a-b5f7-4039-9ddf-80fb88f6c044.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is a finite atomic lattice.</p><p>2) <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\fd79392b-579d-412f-a8e8-ce9e30c31ab9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is geometric if and only if<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\0ac19dcb-6647-4157-8524-4ecf76d2b973.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Proof. 1) For any two elements<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\41ee25a8-0abc-42df-b496-a1e120d2e7f2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5c6a2138-82a5-4415-8ad3-14e03ac731ad.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>and</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\1b3dcf8d-dfd9-4956-872e-94e914cbd1c2.png" /></p><p>Therefore <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\f332c24f-dfd0-4285-868f-d2092f76585b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a finite lattice. Note that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\8118eb7e-bacc-4c27-83a9-bc9fde33cb59.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the unique minimum element. Let <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e907f54f-9a24-4d0c-b963-c93b6a432ef5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> be the set of all the j-dimensional subspaces of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\32748586-b11c-4741-b287-2e7b797a4d6f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\a33ac9b5-4552-4596-b0a6-4d584c70c2c2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Then <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\16075e1d-0e76-4844-9e07-909dbd864799.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the set of all the atoms in<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\9c595ef9-dc73-4ba2-a5cb-ff2d4e755dd2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. In order to prove <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\ef6c7d92-ad2a-4177-a276-9a1a30db9ecb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is atomic, it suffices to show that every element of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1fd42107-804b-422c-8716-d0b8a9b1d4eb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a join of some atoms. The result is trivial for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\0af284aa-835a-4825-b6bc-87ed35507325.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Suppose that the result is true for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\80a7b93c-23e7-4c2f-9554-506ecba87c37.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Let<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\c3ae07c0-45f6-486a-bd5a-c6fcca9d2c7d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. By Proposition 2.1, the number of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\7bff7841-563b-4dc8-9c0d-0cd629a37811.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> subspaces of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\75d024d7-be46-4a79-a0c3-44580544dc3e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> containing <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\be925866-1b46-41fc-a9d0-92e644379ecb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is equal to</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\276cb6fd-0e4d-4d9a-8c11-d11e15697299.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Then there exist two different <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\a6c95d9b-0fb7-4081-a4e5-f4c58906d63b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> subspaces <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\39fdd569-f7e7-49d1-85ee-1791117b4215.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\216c403c-a94c-4ae5-a8ef-49c5cb788e68.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. By induction <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\2cf2b694-221e-4fcb-85c9-64664ba86770.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a join of some atoms. Therefore <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\3893c3f8-fdae-4fe0-a0a8-41476bf093fe.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a finite atomic lattice.</p><p>2) For any<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\34e47802-fe61-46d6-9a0b-5b5b4b980cde.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we define<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\0edcb98d-c32c-493e-8f56-8c37c25f1c6b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. It is routine to check that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\22271d5d-2fa7-4aac-b6d5-6f1bc1332dde.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the rank function on<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\672a7186-8275-49de-95ba-4679be59978a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. It is obvious that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\8fb71a05-6dc0-4d0d-9fa5-96ea707065cb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a geometric lattice. Now assume that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\e1fd1e81-258f-4421-80a5-9020c4fb9c71.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Let P be a <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\9da40d95-ba14-4e10-9c89-83c8f6d00052.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>-dimensional subspace of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5581a541-74c9-4df9-8f81-6e2afdd710d7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\13e7a1dc-8eca-4eaa-a72b-ddaa33867e3d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. By Proposition 2.1, the number of 2-dimensional subspaces of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\aea30710-0683-4730-90f2-05295241462a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> containing P is equal to</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\3f944e91-b8ea-44ba-80d4-96c8ecc9482d.png" /></p><p>Therefore, there exist two different 2-dimensional subspaces <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\958a5546-9b29-4101-8531-94508e3e06b0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\48ce28ae-70be-4373-88f9-45ad262ca481.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. So<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\05172627-6833-4d0c-9dfa-c6b74dffd06d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\a2393733-16f6-489b-b3d4-b653f7e19957.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Hence<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5a423a47-bb1e-4a0d-aa46-688b29769c4b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, which implies that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\6580114e-11b1-4858-ad3f-45f9bc79b207.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is not a geometric lattice when<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\a7034c04-18ca-4cdf-b962-66af43dce9f9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1e585da5-0ebf-42c5-afee-98c5ba550502.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></p><p>Lemma 3.2. For any<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1cf4c971-4d3d-42e5-94c7-948ecfa7a647.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, suppose that<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\3817cec3-a36d-4279-972c-1720d004f568.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\1ba0842d-e6d0-498b-8af3-a1f64cfcd9d7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\39b0211f-fef8-4203-ace9-33374b00bf9b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Then the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\2a05a419-e0c7-4197-9352-1b60c39f91c8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> function of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\5c25e1f5-968a-4337-a35a-e18a594b0ca8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\32446400-a0aa-4993-83fe-6d240e3be24a.png" /></p><p>Proof. The <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\bbab1939-d479-43d6-8177-3579ce68c6a2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> function of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\171adf95-cd37-410f-8acf-ec036a26d0ec.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><img src="htmlimages\10-7402050x\6766d7ac-947b-4609-aa11-538a63b09dc3.png" /></p><p>Proposition 2.1 implies that</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\d3c4ee90-946e-4c0c-9f4a-214b2d0cadc1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Theorem 3.3. The characteristic polynomial of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\b7a29219-8107-4c9a-9667-343dad44f8d3.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\10-7402050x\0c18b133-472a-493c-a753-65c90bdba00c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>Proof. 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