Submission date: 4 February 2023

Abstract:

In continuous first-order logic, the union of definable sets is definable but generally the intersection is not. This means that in any continuous theory, the collection of \varnothing-definable sets in one variable forms a join-semilattice under inclusion that may fail to be a lattice. We investigate the question of which semilattices arise as the collection of definable sets in a continuous theory. We show that for any non-trivial finite semilattice L (or, equivalently, any finite lattice L), there is a superstable theory T whose semilattice of definable sets is L. We then extend this construction to some infinite semilattices. In particular, we show that the following semilattices arise in continuous theories: α+1 and (α+1)* for any ordinal α, a semilattice containing an exact pair above ω, and the lattice of filters in L for any countable meet-semilattice L. By previous work of the author, this establishes that these semilattices arise in stable theories. The first two are done in languages of cardinality ℵ_0 + |α|, and the latter two are done in countable languages.

Mathematics Subject Classification: 03C66

Keywords and phrases:

Full text arXiv 2302.02264: pdf, ps.