For a partial order \(\mathbb {P}\) having infinite antichains by \(\mathfrak {a}(\mathbb {P})\) we denote the minimal cardinality of an infinite maximal antichain in \(\mathbb {P}\) and investigate how does this cardinal invariant of posets behave in finite products. In particular we show that \(\min \{ \mathfrak {a}(\mathbb {P}),\mathfrak {p} (\text {sq} \mathbb {P}) \} \leq \mathfrak {a} (\mathbb {P}^{n} ) \leq \mathfrak {a} (\mathbb {P})\), for all \(n\in \mathbb {N}\), where \(\mathfrak {p} (\text {sq} \mathbb {P})\) is the minimal size of a centered family without a lower bound in the separative quotient of the poset \(\mathbb {P}\), or \(\mathfrak {p} (\text {sq} \mathbb {P})=\infty \), if there is no such family. So we have \(\mathfrak {a} (\mathbb {P} \times \mathbb {P})=\mathfrak {a} (\mathbb {P})\) whenever \(\mathfrak {p} (\text {sq} \mathbb {P})\geq \mathfrak {a} (\mathbb {P})\) and we show that, in addition, this equality holds for all posets obtained from infinite Boolean algebras of size ≤o1 by removing zero, all reversed trees, all atomic posets and, in particular, for all posets of the form \(\langle \mathcal {C} ,\subset \rangle \), where \(\mathcal {C}\) is a family of nonempty closed sets in a compact T1-space containing all singletons. As a by-product we obtain the following combinatorial statement: If X is an infinite set and {Ai×Bi:i∈I} an infinite partition of the square X2, then at least one of the families {Ai :i∈I} and {Bi:i∈I} contains an infinite partition of X.
['Miloš S. Kurilić']
The Minimal Size of Infinite Maximal Antichains in Direct Products of Partial Orders