Structures associated with real closed fields and the axiom of choice

Publication date 25 October 2016

Published in Bulletin of the Belgian Mathematical Society - Simon Stevin (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6130, https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bbms/1473186514

axiom of choice integer part real closed fields residue field section value group section

Set-theoretic model theory (03C55) Model-theoretic algebra (03C60) Model theory of ordered structures; o-minimality (03C64) Axiomatics of classical set theory and its fragments (03E30) Consistency and independence results (03E35) Applications of set theory (03E75) General valuation theory for fields (12J20) Model theory of fields (12L12)

Abstract: An integer part I of a real closed field K is a discretely ordered subring with minimal element 1 such that, for every x in K, I contains some i such that x is between i and i+1 in the ordering of K. Mourgues and Ressayre showed that every real closed field has an integer part. Their construction implicitely uses the axiom of choice. We show that the axiom of choice is actually necessary to obtain the result by constructing a transitive model of ZF (i.e. set theory without the axiom of choice) which contains a real closed field without an integer part. Then we analyze some cases where the axiom of choice is not necessary for obtaining an integer part. An integer part I of a real closed field K is a discretely ordered subring of K with minimal positive element 1 such that, for every x in K, I contains some i such that x is between i and i+1 in the ordering of K. Mourgues and Ressayre showed that every real closed field has an integer part. Their construction implicitly uses the axiom of choice. We show that the axiom of choice is actually necessary to obtain the result by constructing a transitive model of ZF (i.e. set theory without the axiom of choice) which contains a real closed field without an integer part. Then we analyze some cases where the axiom of choice is not necessary for obtaining an integer part. On the way, we demonstrate that a class of questions containing the question whether the axiom of choice is necessary for the proof of a certain ZFC-theorem is algorithmically undecidable. We further apply the methods to show that it is independent of ZF whether every real closed field has a value group section and a residue field section. This also sheds some light on the possibility to effectivize constructions of integer parts.

Review text

Let \(K\) be a real closed field (RCF). A discretely ordered subring \(I\) of \(K\) is an integer part of \(K\) if and only if 1 is the minimal positive element of \(I\) and for every \(x\in K\) there is an \(i\in I\) with \(i\leq x<i+1\). \textit{M. H. Mourgues} and \textit{J. P. Ressayre} [J. Symb. Log. 58, No. 2, 641--647 (1993; Zbl 0786.12005)] used a Zorn's lemma argument to show that every RCF has an integer part. They also used the same non-constructive methods to produce other structures associated with RCFs: namely, value group sections and residue field sections.NEWLINENEWLINEThe author of this article shows that the three structures mentioned above all require non-constructive methods. In particular, he constructs transitive models of ZF containing an RCF \(K\), but no integer part. He also constructs models containing RCFs without value group sections and residue field sections.NEWLINENEWLINEWith regard to integer parts, the author gives extra conditions on RCFs that guarantee the existence of integer parts in ZF. The author strengthens his results and obtains others by proving the following theorem: Let \(T\) be a countable, consistent o-minimal theory. Then there is a transitive model \(N\) of ZF such that \(N\) contains a model \(\hat{M}\models T\) with no unbounded discrete subset.

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