# Borel linear order cannot have uncountable increasing chain

I am trying to make sense of what this theorem from C.I. Steinhorn, Borel Structures and Measure and Category Logics, says.

Theorem 1.3.3. A Borel linear order cannot have an uncountable increasing or decreasing chain.

I didn't find definitions in the paper, but I am quite sure that a pair $(A,\leq)$ is a Borel linear order iff $A$ is a Borel set in a standard Borel space $X$ and $\leq$ is Borel as a subset of $X^2$. I presume that an increasing chain is just a linear order with no greatest element and similarly for decreasing.

Here is the problem. Intuitively, I would guess that the lexicographic order on Baire space is a Borel linear order. But then Baire space itself should be an uncountable increasing chain under this order.

What am I misunderstanding?

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This is true if chain is replaced by wellordered chain. In other words, a Borel linear order cannot contain a copy of $\omega_1$ or its reverse. I would guess that's what is meant, otherwise "increasing or decreasing" is not very meaningful. Where is this from? – François G. Dorais Aug 19 '12 at 6:04
@FrançoisG.Dorais Does the well-ordered chain have to be Borel? – William Aug 19 '12 at 6:08
@FrançoisG.Dorais The paper is linked to in the question. projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/… – Rachel Aug 19 '12 at 6:10
@Rachel Mildly related to this result : A consequence of the Kunen-Martin Theorem asserts that all strict boldface $\Sigma_1^1$ (analytic) wellfounded relations have countable length. Boldface $\Sigma_1^1$ include the Borel sets. – William Aug 19 '12 at 6:14
I had missed the link! The author cites Harrington and Shelah, who did prove the result I recalled earlier. I guess it would be best to check that reference. @William: No. There are no uncountable wellordered Borel chains at all so that weaker variant is vacuously true. – François G. Dorais Aug 19 '12 at 6:28

The reference is to a result of Harrington and Shelah, who showed that a Borel linear order does not contain an $\omega_1$-chain. Since every uncountable wellordering contains an initial copy of $\omega_1$, it follows that a Borel linear order cannot contain an uncountable increasing wellordered chain. By reversing the linear order and applying the theorem again, we see that there are no uncountable decreasing wellordered chains either.