Computable dimensions of Pappusian and Desarguesian projective planes (Q694236): Difference between revisions

The problem of the existence and uniqueness of computable presentations for Pappian and Desarguesian projective planes is studied. Let \(\mathfrak F\) be an arbitrary field, \(V_{\mathfrak F}\) a three-dimensional vector space over \(\mathfrak F\). Then a Pappian projective plane is a structure \(\langle A,(A^0,\vphantom{x}^0\kern-1.6pt A),\cdot\,\rangle\), where \(A^0\) (\(\vphantom{x}^0\kern-1.6pt A\)) consists of all one-dimensional (two-dimensional) subspaces of \(V_{\mathfrak F}\), \(A=A^0\cup \vphantom{x}^0\kern-1.6pt A\), and \(\cdot\) (a product) is a partial binary operation defined in the following way: a product of two distinct one-dimensional subspaces \(a\) and \(b\) is a unique two-dimensional subspace containing \(a\) and \(b\); a product of two distinct two-dimensional subspaces is their intersection. The definition of a Desarguesian projective plane is obtained by replacing the field \(\mathfrak F\) by an arbitrary associative skew field. The author considers a projective plane as a model \(\mathfrak{A}_{\mathfrak F} = \langle A, A^0, \vphantom{x}^0\kern-1.6pt A, P^{\mathfrak{A}}\rangle\) with unary predicates \(A^0\) and \(\vphantom{x}^0\kern-1.6pt A\) and a ternary predicate \(P^{\mathfrak{A}}\) for the graph of the operation \(\cdot\). The main technical result is the following: the class of fields is relatively elementarily definable in the class of Pappian projective planes. As the theory of fields is hereditarily undecidable [\textit{J. Robinson}, J. Symb. Log. 14, 98--114 (1949; Zbl 0034.00801)], it follows that the theory of Pappian (and Desarguesian) projective planes is hereditarily undecidable. It is said that a model has a computable presentation if it is isomorphic to a model whose universe is a computable set of natural numbers and the basic predicates are computable. Proposition 8. Let \(\mathfrak F\) be an at most countable field. A Pappian projective plane \(\mathfrak{A}_{\mathfrak F}\) has a computable presentation if and only if \(\mathfrak F\) has a computable presentation Theorem 11. Let \(\mathfrak F\) be an at most countable field. Then the computable dimension of a projective plane \(\mathfrak{A}_{\mathfrak F}\) coincides with the computable dimension of \(\mathfrak F\). The same results hold for the Desarguesian projective planes and associative skew fields.