Geometric lattice structure of covering-based rough sets through
  matroids
  Covering-based rough set theory is a useful tool to deal with inexact,
uncertain or vague knowledge in information systems. Geometric lattice has
widely used in diverse fields, especially search algorithm design which plays
important role in covering reductions. In this paper, we construct four
geometric lattice structures of covering-based rough sets through matroids, and
compare their relationships. First, a geometric lattice structure of
covering-based rough sets is established through the transversal matroid
induced by the covering, and its characteristics including atoms, modular
elements and modular pairs are studied. We also construct a one-to-one
correspondence between this type of geometric lattices and transversal matroids
in the context of covering-based rough sets. Second, sufficient and necessary
conditions for three types of covering upper approximation operators to be
closure operators of matroids are presented. We exhibit three types of matroids
through closure axioms, and then obtain three geometric lattice structures of
covering-based rough sets. Third, these four geometric lattice structures are
compared. Some core concepts such as reducible elements in covering-based rough
sets are investigated with geometric lattices. In a word, this work points out
an interesting view, namely geometric lattice, to study covering-based rough
sets.
