The idea of this paper is to approach linear orderings as generalized ordinals and to study how they are made from their initial segments. First we look at how the equality of two linear orderings can be expressed in terms of equality of their initial segments. Then we shall use similar methods to define functions by recursion with respect to the initial segment relation. Our method is based on the use of a game where smaller and smaller initial segments of (...) linear orderings are considered. The length of the game is assumed to exceed that of the descending sequences of elements of the linear orderings considered. By use of such game-theoretical methods we can for example extend the recursive definitions of the operations of sum, product and exponentiation of ordinals in a unique and natural way for arbitrary linear orderings. Extensions coming from direct limits do not satisfy our game-theoretic requirements in general. We also show how our recursive definitions allow very simple constructions for fixed points of functions, giving rise to certain interesting linear orderings. (shrink)

Let U and B be two countable relational models of the same first order language. If the models are nonisomorphic, there is a unique countable ordinal α with the property that $\mathfrak{U} \equiv^\alpha_{\infty\omega} \mathfrak{B} \text{but not} \mathfrak{U} \equiv^{\alpha + 1}_{\infty\omega} \mathfrak{B},$ i.e. U and B are L ∞ω -equivalent up to quantifier-rank α but not up to α + 1. In this paper we consider models U and B of cardinality ω 1 and construct trees which have a similar relation (...) to U and B as α above. For this purpose we introduce a new ordering T ≪ T' of trees, which may have some independent interest of its own. It turns out that the above ordinal α has two qualities which coincide in countable models but will differ in uncountable models. Respectively, two kinds of trees emerge from α. We call them Scott trees and Karp trees, respectively. The definition and existence of these trees is based on an examination of the Ehrenfeucht game of length ω 1 between U and B. We construct two models of power ω 1 with 2 ω 1 mutually noncomparable Scott trees. (shrink)

The present article, which is a revised version of part of [Hu1], deals with various relations between models which might serve as exact formulations for the vague concept "similar" or "almost isomorphic". One natural class of such formulations is equivalence in a given logic. Another way to express similarity is by potential isomorphism, i.e., isomorphism in some extension of the set-theoretic universe. The class of extensions may be restricted to give different notions of potential isomorphism. A third method is to (...) study the winning strategies for an Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse-game played between the two models, and the properties of the resulting equivalence and nonequivalence trees. The basic question studied here is whether one such notion of similarity implies another. Some implications and counterexamples listed in this part are previously known or trivial, but all are mentioned for completeness' sake. Only models of cardinality ℵ 1 are considered. Some results are therefore connected with the Continuum Hypothesis. (shrink)

If T is an unstable theory of cardinality <λ or countable stable theory with OTOP or countable superstable theory with DOP, λω λω1 in the superstable with DOP case) is regular and λ<λ=λ, then we construct for T strongly equivalent nonisomorphic models of cardinality λ. This can be viewed as a strong nonstructure theorem for such theories. We also consider the case when T is unsuperstable and develop further a result of Shelah about the existence of L∞,λ-equivalent nonisomorphic models for (...) such T. In addition, we show that a natural analogue of Scott's isomorphism theorem fails for models of power κ, if κω is regular, assuming κ<κ=κ. (shrink)