## name for “solid” subset of a partially ordered set?

For P a partially ordered set, let S be a subset of P such that if:

a,c\in S and b\in P and a<=b<=c then b\in S

Is there a name for a subset with this property? The term "dense" subset is already taken and means something else.

-

A set with this property is called convex.

See e.g. Quasi-uniform spaces, Volume 77 of Lecture notes in pure and applied mathematics, Peter Fletcher, William F. Lindgren, Marcel Dekker, 1982, p.84.

-
 Thank you very much! – Adam Dec 8 2009 at 9:17

I remember seeing a definition of interval in a poset as the subset $[a,c] = \{b: a\leq b\leq c\}$. This would seem to be what you're talking about.

Specifically, this is the definition in Stanley: Enumerative Combinatorics vol 1, p 98.

-
Every interval is convex, but not every convex set is an interval. For instance, an antichain in a poset is convex, but unless it has only one element it is not an interval. – David Eppstein Dec 8 2009 at 0:16
Right, and Stanley requires for the interval that a ≤ b, which isn't stated explicitly in the question. – Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson Dec 9 2009 at 1:04