We study a version of the Craig interpolation theorem formulated in the framework of the theory of institutions. This formulation proved crucial in the development of a number of key results concerning foundations of software specification and formal development. We investigate preservation of interpolation properties under institution extensions by new models and sentences. We point out that some interpolation properties remain stable under such extensions, even if quite arbitrary new models and sentences are permitted. We give complete characterisations of such situations for institution extensions by new models, by new sentences, as well as by new models and sentences, respectively.

We show that the conceptual distance between any two theories of first-order logic is the same as the generator distance between their Lindenbaum–Tarski algebras of concepts. As a consequence of this, we show that, for any two arbitrary mathematical structures, the generator distance between their meaning algebras (also known as cylindric set algebras) is the same as the conceptual distance between their first-order logic theories. As applications, we give a complete description for the distances between meaning algebras corresponding to structures having at most three elements and show that this small network represents all the possible conceptual distances between complete theories. As a corollary of this, we will see that there are only two non-trivial structures definable on three-element sets up to conceptual equivalence (i.e., up to elementary plus definitional equivalence).

For any subset $Z \subseteq {\mathbb {Q}}$, consider the set $S_Z$ of subfields $L\subseteq {\overline {\mathbb {Q}}}$ which contain a co-infinite subset $C \subseteq L$ that is universally definable in L such that $C \cap {\mathbb {Q}}=Z$. Placing a natural topology on the set ${\operatorname {Sub}({\overline {\mathbb {Q}}})}$ of subfields of ${\overline {\mathbb {Q}}}$, we show that if Z is not thin in ${\mathbb {Q}}$, then $S_Z$ is meager in ${\operatorname {Sub}({\overline {\mathbb {Q}}})}$. Here, thin and meager both mean “small”, in terms of arithmetic geometry and topology, respectively. For example, this implies that only a meager set of fields L have the property that the ring of algebraic integers $\mathcal {O}_L$ is universally definable in L. The main tools are Hilbert’s Irreducibility Theorem and a new normal form theorem for existential definitions. The normal form theorem, which may be of independent interest, says roughly that every $\exists $-definable subset of an algebraic extension of ${\mathbb Q}$ is a finite union of single points and projections of hypersurfaces defined by absolutely irreducible polynomials.

Two first-order logic theories are definitionally equivalent if and only if there is a bijection between their model classes that preserves isomorphisms and ultraproducts (Theorem 2). This is a variant of a prior theorem of van Benthem and Pearce. In Example 2, uncountably many pairs of definitionally inequivalent theories are given such that their model categories are concretely isomorphic via bijections that preserve ultraproducts in the model categories up to isomorphism. Based on these results, we settle several conjectures of Barrett, Glymour and Halvorson.

We can measure the complexity of a logical formula by counting the number of alternations between existential and universal quantifiers. Suppose that an elementary first-order formula $\varphi $ (in $\mathcal {L}_{\omega ,\omega }$) is equivalent to a formula of the infinitary language $\mathcal {L}_{\infty ,\omega }$ with n alternations of quantifiers. We prove that $\varphi $ is equivalent to a finitary formula with n alternations of quantifiers. Thus using infinitary logic does not allow us to express a finitary formula in a simpler way.

When classes of structures are not first-order definable, we might still try to find a nice description. There are two common ways for doing this. One is to expand the language, leading to notions of pseudo-elementary classes, and the other is to allow infinite conjuncts and disjuncts. In this paper we examine the intersection. Namely, we address the question: Which classes of structures are both pseudo-elementary and ${\mathcal {L}}_{\omega _1, \omega }$ -elementary? We find that these are exactly the classes that can be defined by an infinitary formula that has no infinitary disjunctions.

In this article we show that bi-intuitionistic predicate logic lacks the Craig Interpolation Property. We proceed by adapting the counterexample given by Mints, Olkhovikov and Urquhart for intuitionistic predicate logic with constant domains [13]. More precisely, we show that there is a valid implication $\phi \rightarrow \psi $ with no interpolant. Importantly, this result does not contradict the unfortunately named ‘Craig interpolation’ theorem established by Rauszer in [24] since that article is about the property more correctly named ‘deductive interpolation’ (see Galatos, Jipsen, Kowalski and Ono’s use of this term in [5]) for global consequence. Given that the deduction theorem fails for bi-intuitionistic logic with global consequence, the two formulations of the property are not equivalent.

Given a Henselian valuation, we study its definability (with and without parameters) by examining conditions on the value group. We show that any Henselian valuation whose value group is not closed in its divisible hull is definable in the language of rings, using one parameter. Thereby we strengthen known definability results. Moreover, we show that in this case, one parameter is optimal in the sense that one cannot obtain definability without parameters. To this end, we present a construction method for a t-Henselian non-Henselian ordered field elementarily equivalent to a Henselian field with a specified value group.

Necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the (first-order) theory of a universal class of algebraic structures (algebras) to have a model completion, extending a characterization provided by Wheeler. For varieties of algebras that have equationally definable principal congruences and the compact intersection property, these conditions yield a more elegant characterization obtained (in a slightly more restricted setting) by Ghilardi and Zawadowski. Moreover, it is shown that under certain further assumptions on congruence lattices, the existence of a model completion implies that the variety has equationally definable principal congruences. This result is then used to provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a model completion for theories of Hamiltonian varieties of pointed residuated lattices, a broad family of varieties that includes lattice-ordered abelian groups and MV-algebras. Notably, if the theory of a Hamiltonian variety of pointed residuated lattices has a model completion, it must have equationally definable principal congruences. In particular, the theories of lattice-ordered abelian groups and MV-algebras do not have a model completion, as first proved by Glass and Pierce, and Lacava, respectively. Finally, it is shown that certain varieties of pointed residuated lattices generated by their linearly ordered members, including lattice-ordered abelian groups and MV-algebras, can be extended with a binary operation to obtain theories that do have a model completion.

For a ring R, Hilbert’s Tenth Problem $HTP(R)$ is the set of polynomial equations over R, in several variables, with solutions in R. We view $HTP$ as an enumeration operator, mapping each set W of prime numbers to $HTP(\mathbb {Z}[W^{-1}])$ , which is naturally viewed as a set of polynomials in $\mathbb {Z}[X_1,X_2,\ldots ]$ . It is known that for almost all W, the jump $W'$ does not $1$ -reduce to $HTP(R_W)$ . In contrast, we show that every Turing degree contains a set W for which such a $1$ -reduction does hold: these W are said to be HTP-complete. Continuing, we derive additional results regarding the impossibility that a decision procedure for $W'$ from $HTP(\mathbb {Z}[W^{-1}])$ can succeed uniformly on a set of measure $1$ , and regarding the consequences for the boundary sets of the $HTP$ operator in case $\mathbb {Z}$ has an existential definition in $\mathbb {Q}$ .

We prove that the two-variable fragment of first-order logic has the weak Beth definability property. This makes the two-variable fragment a natural logic separating the weak and the strong Beth properties since it does not have the strong Beth definability property.

We prove first-order definability of the prime subring inside polynomial rings, whose coefficient rings are (commutative unital) reduced and indecomposable. This is achieved by means of a uniform formula in the language of rings with signature $(0,1,+,\cdot )$. In the characteristic zero case, the claim implies that the full theory is undecidable, for rings of the referred type. This extends a series of results by Raphael Robinson, holding for certain polynomial integral domains, to a more general class.

We give a short proof of the fundamental theorem of central element theory (see: Sanchez Terraf and Vaggione, Varieties with definable factor congruences, T.A.M.S. 361). The original proof is constructive and very involved and relies strongly on the fact that the class be a variety. Here we give a more direct nonconstructive proof which applies for the more general case of a first-order class which is both closed under the formation of direct products and direct factors.

We consider the propositional logic equipped with Chellas stit operators for a finite set of individual agents plus the historical necessity modality. We settle the question of whether such a logic enjoys restricted interpolation property, which requires the existence of an interpolant only in cases where the consequence contains no Chellas stit operators occurring in the premise. We show that if action operators count as logical symbols, then such a logic has restricted interpolation property iff the number of agents does not exceed three. On the other hand, if action operators are considered to be nonlogical symbols, then the restricted interpolation fails for any number of agents exceeding one. It follows that unrestricted Craig interpolation also fails for almost all versions of stit logic.

It is known that a countable $\omega $ -categorical structure interprets all finite structures primitively positively if and only if its polymorphism clone maps to the clone of projections on a two-element set via a continuous clone homomorphism. We investigate the relationship between the existence of a clone homomorphism to the projection clone, and the existence of such a homomorphism which is continuous and thus meets the above criterion.

We consider the structure $({\Bbb Z}, + ,0,|_{p_1 } , \ldots ,|_{p_n } )$, where $x|_p y$ means $v_p \left( x \right) \leqslant v_p \left( y \right)$ and vp is the p-adic valuation. We prove that this structure has quantifier elimination in a natural expansion of the language of abelian groups, and that it has dp-rank n. In addition, we prove that a first order structure with universe ${\Bbb Z}$ which is an expansion of $({\Bbb Z}, + ,0)$ and a reduct of $({\Bbb Z}, + ,0,|_p )$ must be interdefinable with one of them. We also give an alternative proof for Conant’s analogous result about $({\Bbb Z}, + ,0, < )$.

Given two structures ${\cal M}$ and ${\cal N}$ on the same domain, we say that ${\cal N}$ is a reduct of ${\cal M}$ if all $\emptyset$-definable relations of ${\cal N}$ are $\emptyset$-definable in ${\cal M}$. In this article the reducts of the Henson digraphs are classified. Henson digraphs are homogeneous countable digraphs that omit some set of finite tournaments. As the Henson digraphs are ${\aleph _0}$-categorical, determining their reducts is equivalent to determining the closed supergroups G ≤ Sym(ℕ) of their automorphism groups.

A consequence of the classification is that there are ${2^{{\aleph _0}}}$ pairwise noninterdefinable Henson digraphs which have no proper nontrivial reducts. Taking their automorphisms groups gives a positive answer to a question of Macpherson that asked if there are ${2^{{\aleph _0}}}$ pairwise nonconjugate maximal-closed subgroups of Sym(ℕ). By the reconstruction results of Rubin, these groups are also nonisomorphic as abstract groups.

Let A ≤ B be structures, and ${\cal K}$ a class of structures. An element b ∈ B is dominated by A relative to ${\cal K}$ if for all ${\bf{C}} \in {\cal K}$ and all homomorphisms g, g' : B → C such that g and g' agree on A, we have gb = g'b. Our main theorem states that if ${\cal K}$ is closed under ultraproducts, then A dominates b relative to ${\cal K}$ if and only if there is a partial function F definable by a primitive positive formula in ${\cal K}$ such that FB(a1,…,an) = b for some a1,…,an ∈ A. Applying this result we show that a quasivariety of algebras ${\cal Q}$ with an n-ary near-unanimity term has surjective epimorphisms if and only if $\mathbb{S}\mathbb{P}_n \mathbb{P}_u \left( {\mathcal{Q}_{{\text{RSI}}} } \right)$ has surjective epimorphisms. It follows that if ${\cal F}$ is a finite set of finite algebras with a common near-unanimity term, then it is decidable whether the (quasi)variety generated by ${\cal F}$ has surjective epimorphisms.

A relational structure is called reversible iff each bijective endomorphism (condensation) of that structure is an automorphism. We show that reversibility is an invariant of some forms of L∞ω −bi-interpretability, implying that the condensation monoids of structures are topologically isomorphic. Applying these results, we prove that, in particular, all orbits of ultrahomogeneous tournaments and reversible ultrahomogeneous m-uniform hypergraphs are reversible relations and that the same holds for the orbits of reversible ultrahomogeneous digraphs definable by formulas which are not R-negative.

Every complete first order theory has a corresponding complete theory in continuous logic, called the randomization theory. It has two sorts, a sort for random elements of models of the first order theory, and a sort for events. In this paper we establish connections between properties of countable models of a first order theory and corresponding properties of separable models of the randomization theory. We show that the randomization theory has a prime model if and only if the first order theory has a prime model. And the randomization theory has the same number of separable homogeneous models as the first order theory has countable homogeneous models. We also show that when T has at most countably many countable models, each separable model of TR is uniquely characterized by a probability density function on the set of isomorphism types of countable models of T. This yields an analogue for randomizations of the results of Baldwin and Lachlan on countable models of ω1-categorical first order theories.