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THE RATIONALS HAVE AN AZ-ENUMERATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1999

MICHAEL ALBERT
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; [email protected]
AMBAR CHOWDHURY
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, U-9, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA; [email protected]
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Abstract

Let M be an ω-categorical structure (that is, M is countable and Th(M) is ω-categorical). A nice enumeration of M is a total ordering [pr ] of M having order-type ω and satisfying the following. Whenever ai, i<ω, is a sequence of elements from M, there exist some i<j<ω and an automorphism σ of M such that σ(ai) = aj and whenever b[pr ]ai, then σ(b)[pr ]aj.

Such enumerations were introduced by Ahlbrandt and Ziegler in [1] where they showed that any Grassmannian of an infinite-dimensional projective space over a finite field (or of a disintegrated set) admits a nice enumeration; this combinatorial property played an essential role in their proof that almost strongly minimal totally categorical structures are quasi-finitely axiomatisable.

Recall that if M is ω-categorical and a is a k-tuple of distinct elements from M (with tp(a) non-algebraic), then the Grassmannian Gr(M; a) is defined as follows. The domain of Gr(M; a) is the set of realisations of tp(a) in Mk, modulo the equivalence relation xEy if x and y are equal as sets. This is a 0-definable subset of Meq, and now the relations on Gr(M; a) are by definition precisely those which are 0-definable in the structure Meq. (In particular, Gr(M; a) is also ω-categorical.)

Notice that it is by no means clear that if M admits a nice enumeration, then so do Grassmannians of M. However, there is a strengthening of the notion of nice enumeration for which this is the case.

Type
Notes and Papers
Copyright
The London Mathematical Society 1999

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