Computable dimensions of Pappusian and Desarguesian projective planes (Q694236)

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.