Subfields of a real closed field of countable codimension (Q2040533)

This paper discusses the existence of subfields of real closed fields. Recall that \(K\) is called real if \(-1\) is not a sum of squares in \(K\). This is equivalent to say that \(K\) admits an ordering, that is, \(K\) admits a total order relation compatible with sums and products in the obvious way. The real field \(K\) is said to be real closed if it is real and if any algebraic extension of \(K\) which is real must coincide with \(K\). Given a field extension \(E\vert F\) we call the codimension of \(F\) (with respect to \(E\)) the dimension \([E : F]\) of \(E\) as \(F\)-vector space. Equivalently, \([E : F]\) denotes the degree of the extension \(E\) over \(F\). Let \(R\) be a maximal proper subfield of an algebraically closed field \(C\) of zero characteristic. Then it is well known that \(R\) is real closed and the degree (codimension) \([C : R] = 2\). On the other hand, real closed fields do not admit proper subfields of finite codimension. In the main result of this paper - Theorem 2.6, it is proven that given a real closed field \(R\) and a proper algebraic field extension \(R\vert K\), there exists a countable family of fields \(\{K_n : n \in\mathbb N\}\) with \(K\subset K_n \subset R\) such that every \(K_n\) is a subfield of \(R\) of countable codimension (which is the smallest possible degree.) In addition, \(K_n\subset K_m\) if \(m\) divides \(n\). Section 3 is mainly devoted to study the family \(\mathcal F_R^{cc}\) of all subfields of a real closed field \(R\) with countable codimension and, in particular, the subfamily \(\{K_n : n \in\mathbb N\}\) constructed in Section 2. It is proven in Remark 3.2 that no \(K_n\) is real closed, but each \(K_n\) is an euclidean field, that is, each positive element of \(K_n\) with respect to the ordering inherited from \(R\), is a square in \(K_n\). In Corollary 3.4 it is shown that \(\mathcal F_R^{cc}\) does not contain maximal elements and in Proposition 3.7 it is shown that the intersection of all these subfields is \(\mathbb Q\).