Model companion 2026-10-06
A model companion of is a model-complete theory in the same language with . Equivalently each model of either theory embeds into a model of the other. Alternating these embeddings and using the elementary chain theorem proves uniqueness up to logical equivalence. A model companion need not be a syntactic extension of its original theory.
A model companion of a first-order theory , in the same first-order language, is a model-complete theory with the same universal consequences of a theory as :
Equivalently, every model of embeds into a model of , and every model of embeds into a model of . The equivalence follows from the diagram embedding criterion for universal theories, which is an application of the compactness theorem. A model companion need not be a syntactic extension of , and uniqueness is understood up to logical equivalence of theories.
A model-complete theory is one for which every embedding between models is elementary. If is an embedding chain of models, all transition embeddings are therefore elementary. The elementary chain theorem shows that the union is a model elementarily extending every , so the theory is preserved under unions of embedding chains. Part (c) then gives an axiomatization by forall-exists sentences.