C-independence and c-rank of posets and lattices
  Continuing with the authors concept (and results) of defining independence for columns of a boolean and superboolean matrix, we apply this theory to finite lattices and finite posets, introducing boolean and superboolean matrix representations for these objects. These representations yield the new concept of c-independent subsets of lattices and posets, for which the notion of c-rank is determined as the cardinality of the largest c-independent subset. We characterize this c-rank and show that c-independent subsets have a very natural interpretation in term of the maximal chains of the Hasse diagram and the associated partitions of the lattice. This realization has direct important connections with chamber systems. 
Zur Izhakian and John Rhodes
math.MG math.RA