More on imaginaries in <i>p</i>-adic fields (Q4338310)

The paper deals with the question whether the theory of \(p\)-adic numbers, \(Q_p\), admits elimination of imaginaries (EI) in a language which extends the language of rings by a three-sorted language which can express the relations \(v(x)= v(y)\) and \(v(x-y) \geq 0\), where \(v\) is the valuation. By one of the many equivalent definitions, a complete theory \(T\) in a language \(L\) admits EI if for every model \(M\) of the theory, every definable set of \(n\)-tuples of \(M\) can be described as the set of \(x= (x_1, \dots, x_n)\) such that \(\varphi (a,x)\) for some formula \(\varphi\) of \(L\) and some unique \(m\)-tuple \(a\) of elements of \(M\). For example, it is known that the theory of an algebraically closed field admits EI (the definable sets are quasi-varieties) and the same is true of the theory of any real closed field. So it is interesting that \(p\)-adically closed domains such as \(Q_p\), which, in many respects have model-theoretic properties similar to those of real closed fields, do not admit EI in the mentioned three-sorted language.