Tracking chains revisited
  The structure ${\cal C}_2:=(1^\infty,\le,\le_1,\le_2)$, introduced and first analyzed in Carlson and Wilken 2012 (APAL), is shown to be elementary recursive. Here, $1^\infty$ denotes the proof-theoretic ordinal of the fragment $\Pi^1_1$-$\mathrm{CA}_0$ of second order number theory, or equivalently the set theory $\mathrm{KPl}_0$, which axiomatizes limits of models of Kripke-Platek set theory with infinity. The partial orderings $\le_1$ and $\le_2$ denote the relations of $\Sigma_1$- and $\Sigma_2$-elementary substructure, respectively. In a subsequent article we will show that the structure ${\cal C}_2$ comprises the core of the structure ${\cal R}_2$ of pure elementary patterns of resemblance of order $2$. In Carlson and Wilken 2012 (APAL) the stage has been set by showing that the least ordinal containing a cover of each pure pattern of order $2$ is $1^\infty$. However, it is not obvious from Carlson and Wilken 2012 (APAL) that ${\cal C}_2$ is an elementary recursive structure. This is shown here through a considerable disentanglement in the description of connectivity components of $\le_1$ and $\le_2$. The key to and starting point of our analysis is the apparatus of ordinal arithmetic developed in Wilken 2007 (APAL) and in Section 5 of Carlson and Wilken 2012 (JSL), which was enhanced in Carlson and Wilken 2012 (APAL) specifically for the analysis of ${\cal C}_2$. 
Gunnar Wilken
math.LO