Interrelations between the length, the structure and the cardinality of a chain (Q5951891)

Let \((Z,\leq)\) be a linearly ordered set. The authors define linearly ordered sets as follows: \((Z_0,\leq_0): =(Z,\leq)\). If \(\alpha\) is a successor ordinal, two chains \(A,B\) of \(Z_{\alpha-1}\) are linked, iff \((A,B)\) is a jump of \((Z_{\alpha-1}, \leq_{\alpha-1})\); that means: there is no element of \(Z\) between \(A\) and \(B\). Then \(Z_\alpha\) consists of the components of the graph \(G_\alpha\) which is defined in this way. For a limit ordinal \(\alpha\) the set \(Z_\alpha\) consists of all unions \(\bigcup\{A_\beta \mid\beta <\alpha\}\) of chains \(A_\beta\in Z_\beta\), where \(\beta< \gamma< \alpha\) implies \(A_\beta \subseteq A_\gamma\). There exists an ordinal \(\gamma\) such that \(Z_{\gamma+1}\) does not contain any pair of linkable chains. Then \(\sim\) is the equivalence relation on \(Z\) which is defined by \(x\sim y\) iff \(x\) and \(y\) are in the same component of the graph \(G_\gamma\). The set \(Z_\sim\) of equivalence classes is linearly ordered in the obvious way. Then the authors prove an embedding theorem for \(Z_\sim\). This entails that \(l(z)\leq|Z|\leq 2^{l(z)}\), where \(l(z)\) is defined as the least upper bound of all cardinal numbers which can be order-embedded into \((Z,\leq)\) or its dually ordered set \((Z,\geq)\). Reviewer's remark: The last statement is closely related to the Hausdorff-Urysohn theorem, which states: If \(Z\) is a linearly ordered set with cardinality \(> 2^{\aleph_\alpha}\), then \(Z\) has a subset of type \(\omega_{\alpha+1}\) or of (its inverse) type \(\omega^*_{\alpha+1}\). [See \textit{P. Urysohn}, ``Remarque sur ma note: `Un théorème sur la puissance des ensembles ordonnés' '', Fundam. Math. 6, 278 (1924; JFM 50.0136.04)]. By the way, in the meantime the Hausdorff-Urysohn theorem has been generalized essentially, e.g, by \textit{P. Erdős} and \textit{R. Rado} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 28, 426-438 (1953; Zbl 0051.04003)] and the reviewer [Math. Ann. 170, 245-252 (1967; Zbl 0167.28101)].