Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/iii/paper-26/2/i/solution

Order the collection of all chains in a partial order, including the empty chain, by inclusion. Suppose that were an order-preserving injection. The chain-poset nonembedding lemma follows by a transfinite recursion of length the Hartogs ordinal :
Inductively, the previously constructed points form a strictly increasing chain. If , then , since belongs to the latter but not the former. Monotonicity gives , and injectivity makes this inequality strict. Thus the recursion continues at every and gives an injection , contradicting the defining property of the Hartogs ordinal. Therefore The empty chain is part of the convention: excluding it would make a one-point poset a counterexample.

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