The Vaught conjecture: do uncountable models count? (Q998139)

The author begins by posing the question: Is the Vaught conjecture model theory? He then uses this question as a guide as he investigates imagined counterexamples to Vaught's conjecture (VC) and the number of models they have in power \(\aleph_1\). Using admissible set theory, Makkai proved that every counterexample to VC has an uncountable model that realizes only countably many \(L_{\omega_1,\omega}\)-types. Baldwin offers a model-theoretic proof of this result in which the López-Escobar theorem replaces the use of admissible set theory. He then goes on to prove a new theorem: a first-order theory that is a counterexample to VC has \(2^{\aleph_1}\) models of cardinality \(\aleph_1\). Two ``hard'' theorems of Shelah make up its proof. The paper ends with a discussion of the possibility of extending this result to \(L_{\omega_1,\omega}\) under the hypothesis that \(2^{\aleph_0}< 2^{\aleph_1}\).