Abstract
Let f(n) be the maximum cardinality of an acyclic set of linear orders on {1, 2, … , n}. It is known that f(3)=4, f(4)=9, f(5)=20, and that all maximum-cardinality acyclic sets for n≤ 5 are constructed by an “alternating scheme”. We outline a proof that this scheme is optimal for n=6, where f (6)=45. It is known for large n that f (n) >(2.17)n and that no maximum-cardinality acyclic set conforms to the alternating scheme. Ran Raz recently proved that f (n)<c n for some c>0 and all n. We conjecture that f (n + m)≤f (n + 1) f (m + 1) for n , m≥ 1, which would imply f (n)<(2.591)n − 2 for all large n.
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Received: 12 April 2000/Accepted: 4 December 2000
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Fishburn, P. Acyclic sets of linear orders: A progress report. Soc Choice Welfare 19, 431–447 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003550100120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003550100120