Distributive lattices and Auslander regular algebras

Abstract: Let $L$ denote a finite lattice with at least two points and let $A$ denote the incidence algebra of $L$. We prove that $L$ is distributive if and only if $A$ is an Auslander regular ring, which gives a homological characterisation of distributive lattices. In this case, $A$ has an explicit minimal injective coresolution, whose $i$-th term is given by the elements of $L$ covered by precisely $i$ elements. We give a combinatorial formula of the Bass numbers of $A$. We apply our results to show that the order dimension of a distributive lattice $L$ coincides with the global dimension of the incidence algebra of $L$. Also we categorify the rowmotion bijection for distributive lattices using higher Auslander-Reiten translates of the simple modules.