The principal result of this paper answers a long-standing question in the model theory of arithmetic [R. Kossak, J. Schmerl, The Structure of Models of Peano Arithmetic, Oxford University Press, 2006, Question 7] by showing that there exists an uncountable arithmetically closed family of subsets of the set ω of natural numbers such that the expansion of the standard model of Peano arithmetic has no conservative elementary extension, i.e., for any elementary extension of , there is a subset of ω* (...) that is parametrically definable in but whose intersection with ω is not a member of . We also establish other results that highlight the role of countability in the model theory of arithmetic. Inspired by a recent question of Gitman and Hamkins, we furthermore show that the aforementioned family can be arranged to further satisfy the curious property that forcing with the quotient Boolean algebra collapses 1 when viewed as a notion of forcing. (shrink)

I introduced the notions of proper and piecewise proper families of reals to make progress on a long standing open question in the field of models of Peano Arithmetic [5]. A family of reals is proper if it is arithmetically closed and its quotient Boolean algebra modulo the ideal of finite sets is a proper poset. A family of reals is piecewise proper if it is the union of a chain of proper families each of whom has size ≤ ω1.Here, (...) I investigate the question of the existence of proper and piecewise proper families of reals of different cardinalities. I show that it is consistent relative to ZFC to have continuum many proper families of cardinality ω1 and continuum many piecewise proper families of cardinality ω2. (shrink)