Jd. Farley et Se. Schmidt, Posets that locally resemble distributive lattices - An extension of Stanley's theorem (with connections to buildings and diagram geometries), J COMB TH A, 92(2), 2000, pp. 119-137
Let P be a graded poset with 0 and 1 and rank at least 3. Assume that every
rank 3 interval is a distributive lattice and that, for every interval of
rank at least 4, the interval minus its endpoints is connected. It is shown
that P is a distributive lattice, thus resolving an issue raised by Stanle
y. Similar theorems are proven for semi modular, modular, and complemented
modular lattices. As a corollary, a theorem of Stanley for Boolean lattices
is obtained, as well as a theorem of Grabiner (conjectured by Stanley) for
products of chains. Applications to incidence geometry and connections wit
h the theory of buildings are discussed. (C) 2000 Academic Press.