Types directed by constants (Q636336)

The paper under review is inspired by Shelah's proof that a countable theory with an infinite definable linear order and Skolem functions has \(2^{\aleph_0}\) non-isomorphic countable models. Shelah first reduced the analysis to the capital cases of \(\text{Th}(\omega, \leq, \ldots)\) and \(\text{Th}(\omega + \omega^\star, \leq, \ldots)\) and then coded suitably many linear orders in the countable models of these theories. The author is interested in a similar coding in the theory \(T\) of a partially ordered (saturated enough) structure \((M, \leq, \ldots)\). One assumes \(T\) to be small. An infinite subset \(C\) of \(\text{dcl}(\emptyset)\) is fixed in this framework, satisfying the following conditions (resembling the behavior of \((\omega, \leq)\)): \(\bullet\) for every \(c \in C\), the set of \(x \in C\) such that \(c \leq x\) is cofinite in \(C\), \(\bullet\) \(C\) is downward closed under \(\leq\). Then \(C\) determines a possibly incomplete 1-type \(p_C\) over \(\emptyset\), that is, the set of accumulation points of types of elements in \(C\). It turns out that \(C \cup p_C(M)\) is an initial segment of \(M\) and \(C < p_C(M)\). The type \(p_C\) is consequently called \(C\)-directed. The proof is based on a nearness relation (according to which, for \(a\), \(b\) in \(p_C(M)\), \(a\) is near \(b\) if and only if \(a\leq b\) and \(\text{tp}(a/b)\) is not finitely satisfiable in \(C\)) and a related \(C\)-independence notion (saying that a sequence \((a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_k, \ldots)\) is \(C\)-independent if each \(\text{tp}(a_{k+1}/a_1 \ldots a_k)\) is non-algebraic and finitely satisfiable in \(C\)). Using smallness, \(T\) and \(C\) are slightly modified to make \(p_C\) complete (and so-called strongly \(C\)-directed). As a consequence, the equivalence relation generated by nearness becomes particularly well behaved, which ultimately leads to the main theorem of the paper. This says, in the sketched setting, that {\parindent=4mm \begin{itemize}\item[{\(\bullet\)}] if \(I \subset p_C(M)\) is a maximal \(C\)-independent set, then \((I, \leq)\) is a linear order and its isomorphism type does not depend on the particular choice of \(I\); \item[{\(\bullet\)}] for every linear order there is a model \(N\) of \(T\) such that the order type of a maximal \(C\)-independent subset of \(p_C(N)\) is isomorphic to it. \end{itemize}} Types directed by constants are introduced in arbitrary countable complete theories \(T\). As a corollary of the main theorem, it is shown that, if such a theory \(T\) has a type over a finite domain which is directed by constants, then \(T\) has \(2^{\aleph_0}\) non-isomorphic countable models.