[Math] Understanding Dilworth’s theorem

combinatoricsorder-theory

One formulation of Dilworth's theorem(for finite partially ordered sets) states that :

There exists an antichain A, and a partition of the order into a family P of chains, such that the number of chains in the partition equals the cardinality of A.

The above is an extract from this wiki page. However, I don't understand how the above statement is equivalent to the following formulation of the theorem.

In any finite partially ordered set, the maximum number of elements in any antichain equals the minimum number of chains in any partition of the set into chains.

The wiki article does try to explain this. Here is their explanation:

Dilworth's theorem states that there exists an antichain A, and a partition of the order into a family P of chains, such that the number of chains in the partition equals the cardinality of A. When this occurs, A must be the largest antichain in the order, for any antichain can have at most one element from each member of P. Similarly, P must be the smallest family of chains into which the order can be partitioned, for any partition into chains must have at least one chain per element of A.

I don't get why the statements "…for any antichain can have at most one element from each member of P" and "….for any partition into chains must have at least one chain per element of A" together imply the maximality of the antichain and the minimality of the number of chains.

Any help in understanding why these are equivalent formulations will be appreciated.

Background: I am mostly a problem solver. I am learning order theory because of its connections to Hall's marriage lemma and because it seems very interesting. I am not following any book, but am trying to learn some order theory online. So I am a total beginner in this area.

Best Answer

For this proof, actually two things are shown:

1) Max. Cardinality of an Antichain $\le$ Minimum Number of chains in partition

2) Max. Cardinality of an Antichain $\ge$ Minimum Number of chains in partition

If you have both oft these, equality follows.

One oft them is easy (which one?) and this is explained in the Wikipedia Article. The other one is harder, but for this now it suffices to show the existence oft one Antichain and Partition with the same cardinality, then equality immediately follows, because you already have the other Inequality! (this is the difficult part, have you already read this proof? But worry not, to answer your question we don't have to go into the details, the problems right now are concerned with the proof method)