Atomicity and well quasi-order for consecutive orderings on words and permutations

Abstract

Algorithmic decidability is established for two order-theoretic properties of downward closed subsets defined by finitely many obstructions in two infinite posets. The properties under consideration are: (a) being atomic, i.e. not being decomposable as a union of two downward closed proper subsets, or, equivalently, satisfying the joint embedding property; and (b) being well quasi-ordered. The two posets are: (1) words over a finite alphabet under the consecutive subword ordering; and (2) finite permutations under the consecutive subpermutation ordering. Underpinning the four results are characterisations of atomicity and well quasi-order for the subpath ordering on paths of a finite directed graph.