Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/ii/paper-3/16f/i/solution

This class is not axiomatisable. Suppose that a theory axiomatized it. Add constants , require each to be a maximal element, and require for . Every finite part of this enlarged theory has a model: choose a finite partially ordered set with enough maximal elements. By the compactness theorem the whole theory has a model, but its reduct is a model of with infinitely many maximal elements, a contradiction. This is the compactness obstruction to axiomatizing finitely many maximal elements.

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