In this paper we present a negative solution of counting problems for some classes slightly different from bounded arithmetic (Δ 0sets). To get the results we study properties of chains of finite automata.

We prove a theorem (1.7) about partial orders which can be viewed as a version of the Barwise compactness theorem which does not mention logic. The Barwise compactness theorem is easily equivalent to 1.7 + “Every Henkin set has a model”. We then make the observation that 1.7 gives us the definability of forcing for quantifier-free sentences in the forcing language and use this to give a direct proof of the truth and definability lemmas of forcing.

In [5] and [21] we studied countable algebra in the context of “reverse mathematics”. We considered set existence axioms formulated in the language of second order arithmetic. We showed that many well-known theorems about countable fields, countable rings, countable abelian groups, etc. are equivalent to the respective set existence axioms which are needed to prove them.

One classical algebraic theorem which we did not consider in [5] and [21] is the Hilbert basis theorem. Let K be a field. For any natural number m, let K[x1,…,xm] be the ring of polynomials over K in m commuting indeterminates x1,…,xm. The Hilbert basis theorem asserts that for all K and m, every ideal in the ring K[x1,…,xm] is finitely generated. This theorem is of fundamental importance for invariant theory and for algebraic geometry. There is also a generalization, the Robson basis theorem [11], which makes a similar but more restrictive assertion about the ring K〈x1,…,xm〉 of polynomials over K in mnoncommuting indeterminates.

In this paper we study a certain formal version of the Hilbert basis theorem within the language of second order arithmetic. Our main result is that, for any or all countable fields K, our version of the Hilbert basis theorem is equivalent to the assertion that the ordinal number ωω is well ordered. (The equivalence is provable in the weak base theory RCA0.) Thus the ordinal number ωω is a measure of the “intrinsic logical strength” of the Hilbert basis theorem. Such a measure is of interest in reference to the historic controversy surrounding the Hilbert basis theorem's apparent lack of constructive or computational content.

A standard result about hyperdegrees is proved (under PD) for all Δ 2n+1 1-degrees.

Theorem A. Let M be a left R-module such that Th(M) is small and weakly minimal, but does not have Morley rank 1. Let A = acl(∅) ⋂ M and I = {r ∈ R: rM ⊂ A}. Notice that I is an ideal.

(i) F = R/Iis a finite field.

(ii) Suppose that a, b0,…,bn, ∈ M and . Then there are s, ri ∈ R, i ≤ n, such that sa + Σi≤nribi ∈ A and s ∉ I.

It follows from Theorem A that algebraic closure in M is modular. Using this and results in [B1] and [B2], we obtain

Theorem B. Let M be as in Theorem A. Then Vaught's conjecture holds for Th(M).

Contents: Introduction. §1: Computable rings and modules. §2: Ideal membership relation. §3: Effective structured domains. §4: Completion of a local ring as a domain. §5: The recursive completion. Epilogue. References.

Introduction. Completion is an important general mathematical device. Often, but not always, a completion takes the following form. Let A be a topological algebraic structure whose topology is derived from a metric. For A, a topological algebra  and an embedding i: A →  are constructed such that  is a complete metric space in which A is densely embedded by i. The long list of structures for which such completions exist begins with Cantor's construction of the real number field and includes objects like the p-adic integers, Baire space, and Boolean algebras. In Bourbaki [6] a careful and thorough account of completions for arbitrary topological groups and fields is given, for which it is important to note that the topological structures need not be metrizable, but must possess a uniformity.

The effectiveness of the completion process of a computable structure A cannot be readily studied using the tools of computable algebra, simply because the resulting structure  is almost invariably uncountable. However, in particular cases, it has been possible to define and study the substructure Ak of computable elements of Â; this has been done for the structures mentioned above, starting with the field of recursive real numbers.

In this paper we analyse the effectivity of the completion of a local ring R. We do this using structured Scott-Ershov domains. Our study may be considered as a prototype containing methods applicable to a broad class of completions, including all the examples mentioned above, except for the real number field, which needs a generalisation of the domain concept.

A Scott-Ershov domain D formalises how a set Dt of possibly “infinite” elements, called total elements, is constructed from a set Dc of “finite” elements, called compact elements. This is achieved by means of an approximation ordering which determines a topology on D and, in particular, on Dt . Our methodology is to associate to a given topological algebra A a structured domain D(A) such that the total elements D(A)t form a topological algebra topologically isomorphic to A. In such circumstances A is said to be domain definable by D(A). The theory of computability for domains is now applied to study the effectivity of the topological algebra A.

The main result is Vaught's conjecture for weakly minimal, locally modular and non-ω-stable theories. The more general results yielding this are the following.

Theorem A. Suppose that T is a small unidimensional theory and D is a weakly minimal set, definable over the finite set B. Then for all finite A ⊂ D there are only finitely many nonalgebraic strong types over B realized in acl(A) ∩ D.

Theorem B. Suppose that T is a small, unidimensional, non-ω-stable theory such that the universe is weakly minimal and locally modular. Then for all finite A there is a finite B ⊂ cl(A) such that a ∈ cl(A) iff a ∈ cl(b) for some b ∈ B.

Recall the property (S) defined in the abstract of [B1].

Theorem C. Let T be as in Theorem B. Then, if T does not satisfy (S), T has many countable models.

Combining Theorem C and the results in [B1] we obtain Vaught's conjecture for such theories.

This is the first of two papers based on Chapter V of the author's Ph.D. thesis [K1]. The second paper [K3] will deal with a specific application of the ideas presented here to the study of modules, mostly to questions concerning the complexity of injective modules over a commutative Noetherian ring.

In [D], R. Deissler introduced a “minimality rank” which I denote by “rk” here. This rank provides an ordinal measure on the difficulty of defining a given element b in a structure ℳ, allowing the use of parameters from definable subsets of ℳ. If A ⊂ M, rk(b, A, ℳ) = 0 if b is definable in ℳ by a formula with parameters from A. Roughly speaking, in the general case rk(b, A, ℳ) measures how hard we have to work at adding new parameters to A (from sets definable over A in ℳ) in order to be able to define b. “rk” is called a “minimality rank” because of the following: ℳ is a minimal model of the complete theory T = Th(ℳ) iff rk(b, Ø, ℳ) < ∞ for every b ∈ M. Deissler's rank was studied further by R. Woodrow and J. Knight [WK]. They improve on an example given by Deissler. The construction that they present illustrates well the difficulties and subtleties involved in exact calculations of rk.

The central concept underlying Deissler's rank is that of a definable set. In §1 I introduce the idea of a context for definability Φ(x). A set B is Φ-definable over A if for some formula and . For Deissler's rank, Φ is the set of all formulas; for rk+ used in the study of modules, Φ + is the set of all positive primitive formulas. Associated with each Φ is a relation ≺Φ between structures which says that Φ-definitions are preserved. In §1 I develop the basic properties of these two concepts and give a list of examples.

Let PA be first order Peano arithmetic, let Λ be the lattice of Π1 sentences modulo PA, and let S be the poset of prime filters of Λ ordered by reverse inclusion. We show there are large convex discrete parts of S; in particular there are convex parts which form a completed Baire tree or an Aronszajn tree.

The elements of S, which we call nodes, correspond to the extensions of PA which are complete for sentences. Equivalently, for each model of PA the Π1-theory ∀() of is a node, and every node occurs in this form. Note that the Π1-theory ∀() of the standard model (i.e. the filter of true Π1 sentences) is the unique root of S.

This poset S, which is sometimes called the E-tree, was first studied in [1] where it is shown that:

(1) The poset is tree-like, i.e. the set of predecessors of any node is linearly ordered.

(2) The poset has branches, each of which is closed under unions and intersections; in particular each branch has a maximum member.

(3) There are branches on which ∀() does not have an immediate successor. Further properties of the E-tree are given in [2]−[7]. In particular in [4] Misercque shows that:

(4) There are branches on which ∀() does have an immediate successor.

(5) There are nodes with both an immediate predecessor and an immediate successor.

The two results (3) and (4) show that there are fundamentally different branches of S, and (5) shows that parts of branches may be discrete.

This is the second of two papers based on Chapter V of the author's Ph.D. thesis [K1]. For acknowledgements please refer to [K3]. In this paper I apply some of the ideas and techniques introduced in [K3] to the study of a very specific example. I obtain an upper bound for the positive Deissler rank of an injective module over a commutative Noetherian ring in terms of Krull dimension. The problem of finding lower bounds is vastly more difficult and is not addressed here, although I make a few comments and a conjecture at the end.

For notation, terminology and definitions, I refer the reader to [K3]. I also use material on ideals and injective modules from [N] and [Ma]. Deissler's rank was introduced in [D].

For the most part, in this paper all modules are unitary left modules over a commutative Noetherian ring Λ but in §1 I begin with a few useful results on totally transcendental modules and the relation between Deissler's rank rk and rk+.

Recall that if P is a prime ideal of Λ, then an ideal I of Λ is P-primary if I ⊂ P, λ ∈ P implies that λn ∈ I for some n and if λµ ∈ I, λ ∉ P, then µ ∈ I. The intersection of finitely many P-primary ideals is again P-primary, and any P-primary ideal can be written as the intersection of finitely many irreducible P-primary ideals since Λ is Noetherian. Every irreducible ideal is P-primary for some prime ideal P. In addition, it will be important to recall that if P and Q are prime ideals, I is P-primary, J is Q-primary, and J ⊃ I, then Q ⊃ P. (All of these results can be found in [N].)

We prove that the only implications between four notions for Σ½-sets of reals are

I present solutions to several questions of Paul Bankston [2] by means of another version of the ultracoproduct construction, and explain the relation of ultracoproduct of compact Hausdorff spaces to other constructions combining topology, algebra and logic.