Past exam of the model theory and Gödel's incompleteness theorems course of the University of Oxford / 2008 / B / 5

An $L$-structure has a nonempty underlying set $A$. It assigns to each constant symbol $c_k$ an element $c_k^{\mathcal{A}}\in A$, to each $n$-ary function symbol $f_j$ a function $A^n\to A$, and to each $n$-ary predicate symbol $P_i$ a relation contained in $A^n$. Logical equality, when included as logical equality, is interpreted as actual identity.

The arities belong to the specification of the first-order language. An assignment of logical variables to elements of $A$ then evaluates first-order terms recursively and determines satisfaction of logical formulas through the logical connectives and quantifiers. A first-order sentence has no free variables, so its truth in the first-order structure is independent of the assignment.

The set $\Sigma$ is satisfiable if there is one $L$-structure $\mathcal{A}$ satisfying every first-order sentence in $\Sigma$ simultaneously. It is finitely satisfiable if each finite subset ${\Sigma }_0\subseteq \Sigma$ has a first-order model; that first-order model is allowed to depend on the chosen finite subset.

Thus the two statements have different quantifier orders:Satisfiability immediately implies finite satisfiability by using the same first-order structure for every finite subset. The converse is the substantive content of compactness theorem.

The compactness theorem states that a set of first-order sentences has a first-order model if and only if every finite subset has a first-order model.

For the nontrivial direction suppose every finite subset of $\Sigma$ is satisfiable. If $\Sigma$ were inconsistent, a finite formal derivation of a contradiction would use only finitely many premises ${\Sigma }_0\subseteq \Sigma$. Soundness of an arithmetic theory would then exclude a first-order model of ${\Sigma }_0$, contradicting finite satisfiability. Therefore $\Sigma$ is first-order consistent. The completeness theorem, proved by adjoining witnesses and constructing a Henkin term model, supplies a first-order model of $\Sigma$.

The reverse direction is immediate by restriction of the list of required first-order sentences. The key reason compactness theorem follows from syntactic completeness is that every formal proof uses only finitely many premises, even when the whole first-order theory is infinite.

Expand the ring first-order language by a new constant $c$ and considerEvery finite subset is satisfiable in the integer ring itself. Only finitely many divisibility conditions occur; interpret $c$ as a nonzero common multiple of their positive integer indices, using $1$ if none occur. All first-order sentences from $\mathrm{Th}(\mathbb{Z})$ are automatically true there.

Compactness theorem therefore gives a first-order model. Its reduct $R$ to the original ring first-order language satisfies the complete theory of $\mathbb{Z}$, so $R\equiv \mathbb{Z}$. Its element $c^R$ is nonzero and divisible by every positive standard integer. ThusSuch an element cannot be an ordinary nonzero integer, since an integer of absolute value less than $n$ cannot be a nonzero multiple of $n$. The statement concerns each standard integer index separately; it does not assert divisibility by every internally nonzero element of $R$.