We consider a finite universe $\mathscr U$, second order quantifiers Q$_K$, where for each $\mathscr U$ this means quantifying over a family of n-place relations closed under permuting $\mathscr U$. We define some natural orders and shed some light on the classification problem of those quantifiers.

A first-order structure $\mathfrak {A}$ is called monadically stable iff every expansion of $\mathfrak {A}$ by unary predicates is stable. In this paper we give a classification of the class $\mathcal {M}$ of $\omega $ -categorical monadically stable structure in terms of their automorphism groups. We prove in turn that $\mathcal {M}$ is the smallest class of structures which contains the one-element pure set, is closed under isomorphisms, and is closed under taking finite disjoint unions, infinite copies, and finite index (...) first-order reducts. Using our classification we show that every structure in $\mathcal {M}$ is first-order interdefinable with a finitely bounded homogeneous structure. We also prove that every structure in $\mathcal {M}$ has finitely many reducts up to interdefinability, thereby confirming Thomas’ conjecture for the class $\mathcal {M}$. (shrink)

We study tree-like decompositions of models of a theory and a related complexity measure called partition width. We prove a dichotomy concerning partition width and definable pairing functions: either the partition width of models is bounded, or the theory admits definable pairing functions. Our proof rests on structure results concerning indiscernible sequences and finitely satisfiable types for theories without definable pairing functions. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

We introduce the notions of a mutually algebraic structures and theories and prove many equivalents. A theory $T$ is mutually algebraic if and only if it is weakly minimal and trivial if and only if no model $M$ of $T$ has an expansion $(M,A)$ by a unary predicate with the finite cover property. We show that every structure has a maximal mutually algebraic reduct, and give a strong structure theorem for the class of elementary extensions of a fixed mutually algebraic (...) structure. (shrink)

Let D be a division ring such that the number of conjugacy classes of the multiplicative group D ∗ is equal to the power of D ∗ . Suppose that H is the group GL or PGL, where V is a vector space of infinite dimension ϰ over D . We prove, in particular, that, uniformly in κ and D , the first-order theory of H is mutually syntactically interpretable with the theory of the two-sorted structure 〈κ,D〉 in the second-order (...) logic with quantification over arbitrary relations of power ⩽κ . A certain analogue of this results is proved for the groups ΓL and PΓL . These results imply criteria of elementary equivalence for infinite-dimensional classical groups of types H= ΓL , PΓL , GL, PGL over division rings, and solve, for these groups, a problem posed by U. Felgner. It follows from the criteria that if H≡H then κ 1 and κ 2 are second-order equivalent as sets. (shrink)

We generalise the concept of clique width to structures of arbitrary signature and cardinality. We present characterisations of clique width in terms of decompositions of a structure and via interpretations in trees. Several model-theoretic properties of clique width are investigated including VC-dimension and preservation of finite clique width under elementary extensions and compactness.

Aiming for applications in monadic second-order model theory, we study first-order theories without definable pairing functions. Our main results concern forking-properties of sequences of indiscernibles. These turn out to be very well-behaved for the theories under consideration.

Gurevich and Shelah have shown that Peano Arithmetic cannot be interpreted in the monadic second-order theory of short chains (hence, in the monadic second-order theory of the real line). We will show here that it is consistent that the monadic second-order theory of no chain interprets Peano Arithmetic.

We study the expansion of stable structures by adding predicates for arbitrary subsets. Generalizing work of Poizat-Bouscaren on the one hand and Baldwin-Benedikt-Casanovas-Ziegler on the other we provide a sufficient condition (Theorem 4.7) for such an expansion to be stable. This generalization weakens the original definitions in two ways: dealing with arbitrary subsets rather than just submodels and removing the 'small' or 'belles paires' hypothesis. We use this generalization to characterize in terms of pairs, the 'triviality' of the geometry on (...) a strongly minimal set (Theorem 2.5). Call a set A benign if any type over A in the expanded language is determined by its restriction to the base language. We characterize the notion of benign as a kind of local homogenity (Theorem 1.7). Answering a question of [8] we characterize the property that M has the finite cover property over A (Theorem 3.9). (shrink)

We study perfectly trivial theories, 1-based theories, stable varieties, and their mutual interaction. We give a structure theorem for the models of a complete perfectly trivial stable theory without DOP: any model is the algebraic closure of a nonforking regular tree of elements. We also give a structure theorem for stable varieties, all of whose completions have NDOP. Such a variety is a varietal product of an affine variety and a combinatorial variety of an especially simple form.

LetT be a universal theory of graphs such that Mod(T) is closed under disjoint unions. Letℳ T be a disjoint union ℳ i such that eachℳ i is a finite model ofT and every finite isomorphism type in Mod(T) is represented in{ℳ i ∶i<Ω3}. We investigate under what conditions onT, Th(ℳ T ) is a coinductive theory, where a theory is called coinductive if it can be axiomatizated by ∃∀-sentences. We also characterize coinductive graphs which have quantifier-free rank 1.