  A partial cube is a graph having an isometric embedding in a hypercube.
Partial cubes are characterized by a natural equivalence relation on the edges,
whose classes are called zones. The number of zones determines the minimal
dimension of a hypercube in which the graph can be embedded. We consider the
problem of covering the vertices of a partial cube with the minimum number of
zones. The problem admits several special cases, among which are the problem of
covering the cells of a line arrangement with a minimum number of lines, and
the problem of finding a minimum-size fibre in a bipartite poset. For several
such special cases, we give upper and lower bounds on the minimum size of a
covering by zones. We also consider the computational complexity of those
problems, and establish some hardness results.
