A chain complete poset with no infinite antichain has a finite core

It is well known that dismantling a finite posetP leads to a retract, called the core ofP, which has the fixed-point property if and only ifP itself has this property. The PT-order, or passing through order, of a posetP is the quasi order defined onP so thatab holds if and only if every maximal chain ofP which passes througha also passes throughb. This leads to a generalization of the dismantling procedure which works for arbitrary chain complete posets which have no infinite antichain. We prove that such a poset also has a finite core, i.e. a finite retract which reflects the fixed-point property forP.This research was written while the first author was visiting the University of Calgary.Research supported by NSERC grant #69-0982.