Abelian ideals of a Borel subalgebra and root systems, II

Abstract: Let $\mathfrak g$ be a simple Lie algebra with a Borel subalgebra $\mathfrak b$ and $\mathfrak{Ab}$ the set of abelian ideals of $\mathfrak b$. Let $\Delta^+$ be the corresponding set of positive roots. We continue our study of combinatorial properties of the partition of $\mathfrak{Ab}$ parameterised by the long positive roots. In particular, the union of an arbitrary set of maximal abelian ideals is described, if $\mathfrak g\ne\mathfrak{sl}_n$. We also characterise the greatest lower bound of two positive roots, when it exists, and point out interesting subposets of $\Delta^+$ that are modular lattices.