A characterization theorem for geometric logic (Q638496): Difference between revisions

The author proves the following characterization theorem for geometric logic. Theorem. Let \(\Sigma\) be a signature and \({\mathcal S}\) be a collection of \(\Sigma\)-structures in Grothendieck toposes closed under isomorphisms of structures. Then \({\mathcal S}\) is the collection of all models in Grothendieck toposes of a geometric theory over \(\Sigma\) if and only if it satisfies the following two conditions: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] for any geometric morphism \(f: {\mathcal F} \to {\mathcal E}\), if \(M \in \Sigma-\mathbf{str}({\mathcal E})\) is in \({\mathcal S}\) then \(f^*(M)\) is in \({\mathcal S}\); \item[(2)] for any (set-indexed) jointly surjective family \(\{f_i: {\mathcal E}_i \to {\mathcal E}\mid i \in I\}\) of geometric morphisms and any \(\Sigma\)-structure \(M\) in \({\mathcal E}\), if \(f^*_i(M)\) is in \({\mathcal S}\) for every \(i\in I\) then \(M\) is in \({\mathcal S}\). \end{itemize}} She further shows that it is not possible to assume that the set \(I\) in the statement of the theorem above is a singleton, without loss of generality. As an application of this theorem, the author proves a conjecture of I. Moerdijk mentioned in a letter to M. Makkai in 1989. The finite version of this conjecture was already proven by Moerdijk in that same letter, however, that proof cannot be generalized to prove the theorem above, as the former uses the compactness theorem.