Abstract
When a set of closed intervals of the reals is partially ordered by decreeing that A<B when A lies strictly to the left of B, the resulting structure is called an interval order. Semiorders may be viewed as interval orders that arise from closed intervals having a fixed length. The paper initiates a careful study of interval orders and semiorders that happen also to be lattices. A structure theory is obtained for a class of interval order lattices that includes all such lattices of finite length. Characterizations are given of when these lattices are modular or distributive, as well as when they are semiorders. The theory is of some interest because the completion by cuts of an interval order is necessarily an interval order lattice. Though it is shown that the completion by cuts of a semiorder need not be a semiorder, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for a lattice of finite length to be isomorphic to the completion by cuts of a semiorder.
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The author wishes to dedicate this paper to the memory of his late colleague Professor Charles H. Randall.
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Janowitz, M.F. Interval order and semiorder lattices. Found Phys 20, 715–732 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01889457
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01889457