The incidence algebras of posets and acyclic categories

Abstract

Acyclic categories were introduced by Kozlov and can be viewed as generalised posets. Similar to posets, one can define their incidence algebras and a related topological complex. We consider the incidence algebra of either a poset or acyclic category as the quotient of a path algebra by the parallel ideal. We show that this ideal has a quadratic Groeobner basis with a lexicographic monomial order if and only if the poset or acyclic category is lex-shellable.