Brun's inequality for a geometric lattice

Abstract

In a seminal paper of 1915, V. Brun introduced Brun's sieve, which is based on Brun's inequality for the M\"{o}bius function and is a very powerful tool in modern number theory. The importance of the M\"{o}bius function in enumeration problems led G.-C. Rota to introduce the concept of the M\"{o}bius function to partially ordered sets. In this article, we prove Brun's inequality for geometric lattices and develop a sieve in this context. One of the main ingredients is a recent work of K. Adiprasito, J. Huh, and E. Katz on the log-concavity of absolute values of the Whitney numbers associated with matroids. We also study shifted convolutions of the Whitney numbers associated with Dowling lattices. Further, we derive an asymptotic formula for generalized Dowling numbers.