Put for an infinite cardinal . Choose of size , containing all ordinals below , and closed under externally given sequences of length at most . Such a model is built by successive Skolem hull closures, since . For a coloring of with at most colors in , put . Recursively choose for , above all earlier points, so that every earlier -tuple has the same color with as with . There are at most constraints, their code belongs to by closure, and witnesses their consistency. The elementary embedding supplies the required witness in . The resulting sequence is end-homogeneous, providing the induction step in the Erdős-Rado theorem for finite arities.
Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be an infinite first-order structure and a total order. After choosing a Skolem expansion of , an elementary extension contains distinct elements forming an order-indiscernible sequence in that expanded language. Their Skolem hull is an elementary substructure in the expanded language, and its reduct is a first-order model of . Every order automorphism of extends uniquely to a structure automorphism of the hull preserving the chosen Skolem expansion, by transporting terms in the generators.
Uniqueness need not hold among all structure automorphisms of the reduct. For an infinite structure in the pure logical equality language, take two distinct nullary Skolem function values in the hull. For an infinite order-indiscernible sequence, neither can equal a generator: the expanded formula would otherwise hold at every generator, contradicting their distinctness. Swapping fixes every generator and preserves the pure logical equality reduct, while failing to preserve the Skolem expansion. Thus the identity order automorphism already has two extensions in that reduct.
A worldly cardinal permits a countable transitive model of ZFC and a transitive model of ZFC with , , and . First collapse a countable elementary substructure of . Then collapse an -sized Skolem hull containing every countable ordinal and every member of , as well as itself. The transitive collapse fixes transitive subsets lemma preserves and those ordinals.
For the effective counterexample, let be the diagonal halting set and let be the finite approximation obtained by running the first programs for steps. For , define the recursive triple colouring with no computable infinite homogeneous set by
This is a total recursive two-coloring: only bounded computations are involved. An infinite homogeneous set cannot have color one. Fix and take sufficiently large that every halting computation with index at most that ever halts has already halted by stage ; then the color is zero. If has color zero, it computes : given , find in with and inspect . Agreement with every later stage , and the unboundedness of , give . Hence this is the correct answer. The set is not recursive: a purported halting decider would produce a program that halts exactly when the decider says it does not halt on its own index. Thus there is no recursive infinite homogeneous set. Here infinite is essential: every finite subset is recursive, and sets with fewer than three elements are vacuously homogeneous.
A precise finite-arity Erdős-Rado theorem for finite arities is
where and . We prove the closed elementary-submodel construction of an end-homogeneous sequence and then induct. We work with AC, as in the usual cardinal partition calculus.
Put , where is infinite, and let with and . Choose a regular cardinal large enough that this coloring and its domain belong to , the sets of hereditary size below . There is of size containing , every ordinal below , and closed under externally given sequences of length at most . Here is the closure construction: start with a Skolem hull of the named parameters and the ordinals below ; iterate hulls after adjoining all at-most--sequences of the preceding hull for stages. Every stage and the union have size , since and . The elementary chain theorem gives elementarity. Any sequence of at most members of the final union lies in a bounded stage, because is regular, and is added at the next stage. This proves the required closure.
Let . Regularity of gives , and : otherwise would also belong to . Recursively choose increasing for so that, for every -subset of the earlier points,
To justify the recursion, the earlier sequence has length at most , hence belongs to . There are at most constraints. All their points and color values are in , so their coded table belongs to by closure, even though itself is external to . The supremum of the earlier points, plus one, also belongs to and is below . Thus witnesses in that a point above that bound satisfying the table exists. Elementarity supplies such a point in . This completes the recursion.
The sequence is end-homogeneous: on any increasing -tuple from it, the color depends only on its first entries. Define the induced -tuple coloring by . For the induction, the arity-one assertion is the infinite pigeonhole principle: a union of sets each of size at most has size at most . At step , take , so . The constructed sequence has size . The induction hypothesis makes constant on a subset of size ; end-homogeneity makes constant on its -subsets. This proves the theorem. In particular gives an uncountable homogeneous set for every finite-arity coloring with countably many colors, on a sufficiently large cardinal.
There is no unrestricted infinite-exponent analogue under AC. For any infinite cardinal , choose one representative from each equivalence class of modulo finite symmetric difference. Color by the parity of . Removing one element of leaves it in the same class and reverses the parity. Every infinite proposed homogeneous set contains both a countably infinite and , so cannot be homogeneous. Thus the finite-symmetric-difference colouring of infinite subsets proves
The contrast is between arbitrary colorings at countably infinite arity and the finite arities of the theorem; restrictions on the definability of an infinite-arity coloring can change the problem.
The saturated model condition in degree means that a first-order model realizes every one-variable complete type over a parameter set of size less than . Equivalently every finitely satisfiable such complete type is realized, since it can be extended to a complete type. Without a specified degree, saturated usually means -saturated. Countable saturation means -saturation, including complete types over countably many parameters.
Here is a general saturated elementary extension theorem, with proof: for every infinite regular cardinal , every first-order structure has a -saturated elementary extension. At a stage , list all complete types over its subsets of size less than . There is a set of them, since their formulas lie in a set-sized language. Add a witness constant for each complete type to the elementary diagram of , together with every formula in that complete type evaluated at its witness constant. A finite part mentions finitely many complete types and finitely many formulas from each; each finite conjunction is realizable in , and the witnesses for different complete types are unconstrained relative to each other. Thus the finite part is satisfiable. The compactness theorem produces an elementary extension realizing all those complete types. At limits take elementary unions, justified by the elementary chain theorem.
Iterate for stages and put . If has size below , regularity bounds the stages at which its elements enter, so for some . A complete type over consistent with is finitely satisfiable in : each finite conjunction is an existential formula with parameters from , and elementarity transfers its truth from . The complete type is therefore realized in . This proves
For a singular desired degree, apply the theorem at a larger regular cardinal. If is infinite and an uncountable regular satisfies , with and , the construction can keep every stage of size . There are then at most parameter sets and complete types, and downward Löwenheim-Skolem gives that size after each extension; adding distinct elements initially ensures final size exactly . The resulting model is saturated in the unqualified sense. The cardinal-arithmetic hypothesis belongs to this size refinement, not to the general existence theorem.
An explicit ultraproduct version is useful too. In a countable language let be a nonprincipal ultrafilter on and , where each factor is nonempty. Enumerate a countable finitely satisfiable complete type, including its chosen parameter representatives, as . By the Łoś theorem, the set of coordinates where the first formulas have a simultaneous witness belongs to . Put
These are decreasing members of . At coordinate , let be the greatest with , if there is one. Choose a witness to the first formulas there, and an arbitrary element when there is none. For fixed , every coordinate in has , so the chosen function satisfies on a -large set. Its ultraproduct class realizes the whole complete type. A countable language over a countable parameter set has only countably many formulas, so this proves countable saturation of a nonprincipal ultraproduct over omega.
For NFU, we give the rank-indiscernible construction of an NFU model explicitly. NFU has a unary predicate for sets, atoms have no members, extensionality applies to sets, and comprehension applies to every stratified formula. A stratification assigns integer types to variables so that equality uses equal types and requires . A unary set predicate adds no type difference.
Start with the actual set structure . This structure satisfies extensionality and every pure-membership separation instance: the subset defined in a set of rank below still has rank below . We do not assert that satisfies replacement or all of ZFC. Expand it by Skolem functions. In it use the sequence of rank objects , . For two such objects in sequence order, we have
with quantifiers in . The second statement holds because every subset of belongs to , and the later rank is at least .
Introduce constants , , and require them to be order indiscernibles in the Skolem language, satisfying these two assertions whenever . Also require for every ; this fixed rank object is first-order definable in . Every finite part of these requirements together with is satisfiable: color finite increasing tuples of the original rank sequence by the truth values of the finitely many formulas mentioned, and use Ramsey's theorem to get a homogeneous subsequence. The rank assertions hold for every increasing tuple there. The compactness theorem gives a model of the full theory. In its Skolem hull generated by the , the integer shift extends to an automorphism with , by the term-transport proof of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem. Thus still satisfies extensionality and all pure-membership separation instances, and
This is a set-sized first-order model; no satisfaction predicate for a proper-class universe is being assumed.
Externally let . The automorphism bijects onto . Interpret a typed structure with sort equal to . At sort , declare a set exactly when ; otherwise it is an atom. Define adjacent-sort membership by
The guard is necessary: a typed atom might have some ordinary -members in , and those must not become its typed members. Set-extensionality follows from extensionality in , because the ordinary members of a typed set all lie in . For any typed formula on sort , its quantifiers can be restricted to the corresponding , its set predicates replaced by subset assertions, and its memberships replaced by the guarded relation. This is an ordinary pure-membership formula of with finitely many parameters. Separation gives its extension , and the displayed closure assertion gives . It is therefore a typed set witnessing comprehension. The automorphism shifts these sorted domains and preserves the set flags and guarded memberships.
Collapse the types onto . Define
Objects not satisfying have no -members. If two sets have the same -members, their images under are subsets of with the same ordinary members, so are equal by extensionality of ; injectivity of gives equality of the original objects.
To verify every stratified comprehension instance, assign a variable its stratification type and translate its value to . Equality is preserved. An atomic translates to the guarded adjacent-sort membership because ; the unary predicate translates to . Induction on formulas, using the domain bijections for quantifiers, preserves truth. If the free variable has type , typed comprehension produces its extension , with . Put . Then holds, and for every ,
This is exactly the required NFU set. No formula containing the external automorphism has been used in a separation or comprehension scheme; only transports values after the pure formula is formed.
The construction also permits the usual infinity requirement. The ordinary and its successor graph are definable in , hence fixed by , and lie below , so belong to all the required domains. Under , the members of are still its ordinary -members. The new Kuratowski pair satisfies
Since , membership of this pair in under is equivalent to . Thus is an internal injection of into itself omitting zero, giving a Dedekind-infinite set.
We have built a model of NFU, with infinity if it is included in the formulation, in ordinary ZFC metatheory:
In particular . This proof does not assume as an additional internal axiom: its starting structure is the set , not a model of ZFC.
A useful form of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem says that, for an infinite first-order structure and any total order , there is a model of generated as a Skolem hull by distinct order indiscernibles . Every order automorphism of extends uniquely to an automorphism of the specified Skolem expansion of that hull. The model can be obtained inside an elementary extension of a Skolem expansion of ; the generated hull itself need not contain .
Choose a Skolem expansion by iteratively adjoining witness functions: for each existential formula in the current language choose a function returning a witness whenever one exists, with an arbitrary value otherwise. Repeat for countably many rounds. Every formula in the final language uses finitely many symbols, so has a witness function from a later round. Thus the expansion is Skolemized for its own formulas, as required for elementarity of its hull. Add constants for to the complete theory of , require them to be distinct, and impose the scheme
for every formula in the Skolem language. If an elementary extension of is desired, also add its elementary diagram with separate names for its elements.
Every finite part of this theory is satisfiable. Choose infinitely many distinct elements of . For each of the finitely many arities in that fragment, color increasing index tuples by the finite vector of truth values of the formulas occurring. Repeated applications of the infinite Ramsey theorem give an infinite subset on which all these vectors are constant. Interpret the finitely many in increasing-index order from that subset. This satisfies the finite indiscernibility requirements and distinctness, while the elementary diagram is satisfied by the named original structure. The compactness theorem gives a structure satisfying the whole theory.
Let be the closure of the under the Skolem functions, including nullary ones. It is elementary in : whenever an existential formula with parameters from is true in , its Skolem witness lies in . This is the Tarski-Vaught test, whose proof is induction on formulas, using precisely this witness property for the existential step. Hence the reduct of is a model of .
For an order automorphism , define
This is well-defined. If two terms denote the same element, write their equality as a formula on the combined increasing tuple of their indices; indiscernibility preserves that formula after transport by . The same argument preserves every relation and function. Applying gives the inverse, so is an automorphism. Since all elements are terms in the generators, it is the unique automorphism of this Skolem expansion extending . This proves the theorem.
One may require the indiscernibles to lie in any specified infinite sequence of the starting structure, or to satisfy additional finite-tuple properties holding along that sequence: the same finite satisfiability proof chooses its homogeneous subsequence there. This strengthened form is what the rank-domain construction of NFU uses. Uniqueness is asserted in the Skolem expansion, not for all automorphisms of its reduct.
Here a monochromatic set must mean an infinite homogeneous set for a colouring: every singleton is a finite monochromatic set. The requested phenomenon holds for every finite . For it is impossible, since the colour classes of a finite computable colouring are computable and at least one is infinite. We treat this necessary qualification explicitly.
We construct a finite-injury computable colouring of pairs with no infinite computably enumerable homogeneous set, which is stronger than the requested absence of a recursive one. Enumerate the computably enumerable sets as , with computable finite approximations . Requirement seeks distinct markers . At stage , consider indices not currently assigned markers. Choose the least one, if any, for which has two elements outside all markers of higher-priority indices . Assign two such elements as its markers, using a fixed least-element rule, and cancel all markers at lower-priority indices. Do nothing if no such index exists. The active markers are therefore pairwise distinct at every stage.
For , simulate this finite construction through stage and define
In particular every active first marker has colour zero against larger points. This is a total computable function: no question about eventual enumeration or eventual stabilization is used in computing a given pair.
Induction on proves finite injury. Once the finitely many higher requirements have stabilized, requirement is never cancelled again. If it has markers they stay fixed. If is infinite, it eventually supplies two points outside the finite collection of higher markers, so it becomes eligible and is assigned markers; only finitely many higher indices could delay its assignment. Thus an infinite eventually has permanent distinct markers . Choose beyond both markers and beyond their stabilization stage. Then
So is not homogeneous. Every infinite recursive set is computably enumerable, proving the desired obstruction. For , colour an increasing -tuple by the pair formed by its first two elements. Every pair from an infinite homogeneous candidate can be completed by larger members of that candidate, so it would give an infinite pair-homogeneous set, already ruled out.
The uncountable positive theorem is the Erdős-Rado theorem for finite arities. For every infinite cardinal and finite , define and . Then
The partition relation means that every colouring of -element subsets of the left-hand cardinal by at most colours has a homogeneous subset of size . In particular, taking gives an uncountable homogeneous set for every finite arity, once the domain is sufficiently large.
We prove the end-homogeneity lemma needed for induction. Let be infinite, , finite, and with . In a sufficiently large choose an elementary substructure of size containing and all ordinals below , and closed under externally given sequences of length at most . Here consists of sets whose transitive closures have size below .
To justify that closure, begin with a hull containing the indicated parameters and ordinals. At each successor stage add every sequence of length at most from the preceding stage, then take a Skolem hull. There are at most such sequences. Iterate for stages and take elementary unions at limits. The union still has size , and every sequence of at most of its elements is contained in one earlier stage by regularity of , so appears at the next. This proves the claimed closed first-order model rather than assuming its existence.
Let . The inequality uses regularity of and ; has no largest element, since it is closed under successor. Recursively choose increasing for , imposing, for every -tuple of earlier points,
At any stage there are at most earlier points and constraints. Each constraint consists of a tuple of elements of and a colour below , also in . The entire constraint code therefore belongs to by closure. The bound above the previous points belongs to as well. Although itself need not belong to , it witnesses in the existence of a point above that bound satisfying the coded constraints. Elementarity supplies such a point inside . This proves the recursion.
On the resulting sequence of length , the colour of an -tuple depends only on its first entries: its last entry has the same colour contribution as . This is the required closed elementary-submodel construction of an end-homogeneous sequence.
Now prove the theorem by induction on . The case is the infinite pigeonhole principle: partitioning into at most classes of size at most cannot cover it. For , set and apply the lemma to the colouring on . Define a colouring of -tuples from its end-homogeneous sequence of length by their colour when completed with . The induction hypothesis supplies a subset of size on which this derived colouring is constant. Every original -tuple from that subset has the derived colour of its first entries, and is therefore monochromatic. This completes the proof.
The unrestricted infinite-exponent situation is very different under AC. On , choose one representative of each equivalence class modulo finite symmetric difference, and colour by
If is infinite and , deleting remains in the same equivalence class and flips the colour. Every infinite candidate homogeneous set contains such an and as subsets, so
More generally the same argument works for subsets of any fixed infinite cardinality: deleting one element preserves that cardinality, so there is no unrestricted analogue with a homogeneous set large enough to contain such subsets. For the order-type- convention, choose in increasing order type and delete its first element; both sets still have that order type. Thus the distinction from the finite-arity theorem is genuine, not merely a notational ambiguity. This argument uses choice of representatives and is not a claim about every definability-restricted infinite-arity colouring.
A complete type over is a maximal consistent set of first-order formulas in a fixed finite tuple of variables with parameters from , consistent with the theory of that parameter expansion. A first-order model is a saturated model of degree if every such type with is realized in . It suffices to require this for one-variable types and realize a finite tuple successively. Without a subscript, saturated commonly means -saturated; some contexts specify only finite-parameter saturation. We state the degree explicitly.
The saturated elementary extension theorem says that every first-order structure has a -saturated elementary extension for any specified infinite . It suffices to prove this for regular , since a larger regular degree implies the requested degree. At a single stage , list all complete one-variable types over all subsets of of size below . This collection is a set. Adjoin a witness constant for each type to the elementary diagram of and require that constant to satisfy its type. Every finite subset is satisfiable in : each type's finite conjunction has a witness there, and the finitely many new constants have no cross-constraints. The compactness theorem gives an elementary extension realizing all these types simultaneously.
Repeat this step along an elementary chain , taking unions at limit stages, and let be its union. The elementary chain theorem follows here by induction on first-order formulas: an existential statement true in the union has a witness in a later stage; elementarity brings an existential witness back to the earlier stage containing its parameters. Thus each stage is elementary in .
If has size below regular , all its elements lie in a single , by taking the supremum of their fewer-than- stage indices. Any complete type over consistent with is already consistent over , since these structures have the same parameter theory. It was therefore realized in . This proves -saturation of .
A corresponding theorem about full saturation is available with a stated cardinal-size hypothesis: if is uncountable regular, , and , then every infinite first-order model of size at most has an elementary extension of size which is -saturated. First adjoin pairwise distinct constants to the elementary diagram; every finite fragment is satisfiable because the original first-order model is infinite. A Skolem hull of their realizations and the original domain has size . There are at most small parameter sets and at most types over each of them. Compactness and the downward elementary-submodel construction keep each realization stage of size . Taking a Skolem hull of the preceding stage and the chosen witnesses closes under at most finite terms and proves this size bound and elementarity. The same length- chain is consequently a fully saturated model of size . The cardinal hypothesis is not silently asserted to hold for every cardinal.
We now prove consistency of NFU by the permitted alternative method of indiscernibles and a domain-shifting structure automorphism. This can start from an explicit set structure available in ZFC, so we need not assume that there is a first-order model of all ZFC. Let
and give the value off the natural numbers. Regard as a first-order structure, with a named object . The graph of is an external set in the metatheory; it need not be a member of . This structure is extensional and satisfies every separation instance in the pure membership language: any subset of has rank below and belongs to . It also satisfies, for natural ,
since a subset of has rank at most and hence belongs to .
Apply the indiscernible construction proved in question 7(i) to a Skolem expansion of this set structure, requiring to be increasing members of its named natural-number object. For every finite fragment use an increasing sequence of ordinary natural numbers in the initial structure in the Ramsey argument. The resulting generated elementary hull has an external structure automorphism with , preserving and the named . Put and . Then , and satisfies the displayed subset-containment assertion between successive domains. No claim that satisfies replacement is required.
All membership and subset statements about these objects are interpreted inside . The hull is necessarily externally nonstandard: the natural-number objects give an external descending chain. The external structure automorphism is not an object that must be definable within that first-order model.
On the external domain define
This is the rank-shifting NFU model with explicit set predicate. The guard is essential: an object not contained in could still have some ordinary members in , and must not thereby become a nonempty atom. The objects failing have no -members. If two objects satisfying have the same -members, their images under are subsets of with the same members, so extensionality in and injectivity of make the original objects equal. Thus set-extensionality and the atom condition hold.
It remains to prove every comprehension instance. Use the domains just constructed, equivalently , for integer sorts. The map is a bijection from the objects of to the objects of , and every subset of that exists in is an element of . In sort define the set predicate by ; from sort to define membership by ordinary membership guarded by .
For a stratified formula, assign integer types to its variables with equal types for equality and adjacent types for membership. Shift all types uniformly if necessary so the finitely many used types are nonnegative. Replace a variable of type by of its untyped value, quantify it over , and use the typed relations just described. Applying to the untyped definition shows that each atomic first-order formula has the same truth value under this translation; induction on connectives and quantifiers proves the same for the whole first-order formula. Importantly the translated first-order formula is an ordinary first-order formula of with finitely many domain and transformed-parameter constants, not a first-order formula containing the external structure automorphism as a predicate.
If the comprehension variable has type , separation in produces its extension . The subset-containment assertion gives . Put . Then , hence , and for every ,
This verifies stratified comprehension with arbitrary parameters. The empty extension gives a distinguished empty set; the always-true first-order formula gives a universal set. The unstratified Russell predicate is not an allowed comprehension instance. Thus
Starting from the actual set structure and applying compactness constructs a set first-order model, so this is a consistency proof in ZFC, not merely an assumption of Con(ZFC). It proves the requested consistency with an explicit interpretation; it does not depend on treating the much stronger full extensionality of NF as already consistent. The external is a tool of the construction, not an extra symbol permitted in NFU's comprehension scheme.
One useful form of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem is this: for an infinite first-order structure and any total order , there is a first-order model of generated in a chosen Skolem expansion by an order-indiscernible sequence of distinct elements. Every order automorphism of induces an structure automorphism of this expanded hull. One can additionally obtain an elementary extension containing by including its elementary diagram. Uniqueness of the induced structure automorphism is asserted in the Skolem expansion, not among arbitrary structure automorphisms of the reduct.
Choose a Skolem expansion : for every existential first-order formula choose a witness function, satisfying . Iterate the expansion if necessary so witnesses are available for first-order formulas in the resulting language. Add constants and require for distinct indices. For every first-order formula of the expanded language and every two increasing index tuples, add
Together with , this is the indiscernibility theory.
Every finite fragment is satisfiable. It mentions only finitely many first-order formulas and index constants. Choose a countably infinite sequence of distinct elements of . For each relevant arity, colour increasing tuples from that sequence by the finite truth vector of all first-order formulas of that arity in the fragment. Successive applications of the infinite Ramsey theorem for r-sets leave an infinite subset homogeneous for each of these finitely many finite colourings. Interpret the finitely many index constants by distinct elements of that subset in increasing enumeration order. All the required truth-value equivalences then hold, and the original structure satisfies the finite part of its own theory.
If an actual elementary extension of is desired, include constants for its elements and the elementary diagram of . A finite fragment still contains only finitely many parameter instances; include those truth vectors in the same colourings. Thus finite satisfiability is unchanged. The compactness theorem now supplies a first-order model with the entire indiscernible sequence, and in the diagram version an elementary copy of .
Take the Skolem hull of the generators, including the diagram constants when present. The witness functions show directly that the hull is elementary: whenever an existential first-order formula with hull parameters is true in the ambient first-order model, its Skolem witness belongs to the hull. Induction on first-order formulas, or the Tarski-Vaught test, gives elementarity. Its reduct is therefore a first-order model of . In the version without diagram constants its cardinality is at most .
For an order automorphism , define
This is well defined. If two terms represent the same element, express their equality as a first-order formula on the increasing union of their generator indices. Indiscernibility and preservation of the index order carry that equality to the transported terms. The same argument for every relation shows preservation of the expanded structure; applying it to supplies the inverse. Every element is a term in the generators, so no other structure automorphism of the specified expansion can have the same action on them. Hence
For an application requiring the generators to lie in a definable infinite ordered class, impose that class predicate and its increasing-order first-order formulas too. The finite-fragment proof uses an increasing sequence in that class, so all these additional conditions are preserved. In particular the integer index order and its shift give the structure automorphism used in the NFU construction. The constants are order indiscernibles, not necessarily indiscernibles under arbitrary permutations of the index set.
Let be the finite approximation to the halting problem obtained by running the first programs for steps, so and is not computable. For , define the recursive triple colouring with no computable infinite homogeneous set by
This is a total computable function. Here homogeneous sets are required to be infinite: finite homogeneous sets certainly exist. An infinite homogeneous cannot have colour one. Fix ; the finite approximation below eventually stabilizes, so two sufficiently large in give colour zero. If has colour zero, choose in with . For arbitrarily large , homogeneity gives , and hence . Thus computes membership of in . A computable infinite would make the halting problem computable, a contradiction.
For the uncountable partition relation, the Erdős-Rado theorem for finite arities states that for every infinite cardinal and integer ,
The case is the pigeonhole principle: a union of sets of size at most cannot have size . Suppose the assertion holds for . Put and , and let . We give the closed elementary-submodel construction of an end-homogeneous sequence, which avoids intersecting a decreasing family of reservoirs at a limit stage.
Take a sufficiently large regular and an elementary substructure with , containing and all ordinals below , and closed under sequences of length at most . Such an is obtained by successive Skolem hull closures: , and the regularity of puts any at-most--long sequence from the union inside one stage. Put . The set has no greatest element, since taking an ordinal successor is definable in , so .
Recursively choose an increasing sequence in . At stage , its earlier set has size at most , and the colour table on has size at most . Both and this table belong to by its closure. The set
belongs to and is nonempty because it contains . Elementarity supplies . Consequently the colour of each -tuple from the resulting sequence depends only on its first entries. The induction hypothesis applied to these entries gives a homogeneous subsequence of size , proving the result.
Infinite exponents behave differently with the axiom of choice. On the countably infinite subsets of any infinite cardinal , choose a representative of each equivalence class modulo finite symmetric difference. Colour a set by the parity of . Removing one point flips its colour. Every infinite proposed homogeneous set contains an increasing sequence of order type , and that sequence and its tail have opposite colours. Thus the finite-symmetric-difference colouring of infinite subsets gives , whether the domain consists of all countably infinite subsets or only those of order type . There is no unrestricted infinite-arity counterpart to the displayed finite-arity theorem in ZFC.
We give a relative consistency proof: a model of ZFC yields a model of NFU. This proves the requested consistency relative to the usual background set theory; it does not claim the optimal, much weaker consistency bound for bare NFU.
Recall that New Foundations with urelements has a unary set predicate , atoms without members, extensionality restricted to sets, and comprehension for every stratified formula. Stratification assigns integer types to variables, with equal types at equality and adjacent types at membership. We construct a model of simple typed set theory with atoms with a type-shifting automorphism, then identify its types using that automorphism.
Start with a model of ZFC and a Skolem expansion of it. By the compactness theorem there is a model of the same expanded theory with an increasing integer-indexed order-indiscernible sequence of ordinals , all above . Here is the finite-satisfiability argument. A finite fragment names only finitely many and asks for equal truth values of finitely many formulas on increasing tuples. In the starting model choose an infinite increasing sequence of ordinals above . Colour its finite subsets by these truth vectors, successively treating each tuple length. The Ramsey's theorem supplies an infinite homogeneous subsequence for the finitely many colours and arities. Its first required number of elements interprets all named and satisfies that fragment. Compactness gives the entire sequence. This argument works for the countable expanded language because each fragment uses only finitely many formulas.
Replace by the Skolem hull of the . The map
is well defined by indiscernibility: equal terms remain equal after shifting their increasing lists of indices. The same argument preserves every formula. Shifting indices backwards gives its inverse, so is an automorphism of the hull, and . The Skolem hull is elementary by its witness functions. This is a concrete Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski model; it is not an elementary class self-embedding of the actual well-founded universe.
Set , interpreted externally as the objects belonging to that internal rank segment, for every integer . At type declare
and define adjacent-type membership by
The members of a type- set are exactly a subset of ; a type- atom has no -members. Every internal subset of is an object of , since . Extensionality for sets is inherited from . For a typed formula involving finitely many types, restrict its quantifiers to the corresponding internal and express each and by the displayed definitions. Separation in gives the required subset of , which represents its comprehension at type . This verifies the typed theory even though many higher-type objects are atoms. The automorphism carries to the next type.
On domain , define and
If is false, is false, so has no -members. For sets , equality of their -extensions gives equality of the typed sets and hence . To check stratified comprehension, translate a variable of type into . The automorphism laws make membership and equality translate exactly. A stratified predicate on a variable of type zero defines a typed subset of , represented by a set at type one. Then has -extension exactly that predicate. A uniform type shift handles any other type assigned to the comprehended variable. The resulting untyped structure is a model of NFU.
We prove the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem by ultraproducts, with no application of Ramsey theorem. Expand the infinite structure by Skolem functions, choose distinct elements , and choose a nonprincipal ultrafilter on . Let be the desired total index order and put .
For every finite ordered subset , define an ultrafilter on by the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters: a set belongs to exactly when
Here means , with the quantifiers nested in the displayed order. The resulting collection is an ultrafilter, by induction using the ultrafilter laws for negation and conjunction. For , the inverse image of under coordinate projection belongs to exactly when : quantifiers on unused coordinates leave a truth value unchanged.
Consequently there is a well-defined ultrafilter on the Boolean algebra of finite-coordinate cylinders in , declaring a cylinder large by this test. Coherence proves finite intersection closure and ensures that the empty cylinder is not large. Extend its generated filter to an ultrafilter on all subsets of . Form the ultrapower , and for let be the class of .
If , the coordinate equality test belongs to no corresponding two-coordinate product ultrafilter: for every value of the outer coordinate, the inner equality set is a singleton, excluded by nonprincipality. Hence the are distinct. For any first-order formula and any , the Łoś theorem gives
The right side is independent of the actual increasing index tuple, so the form an order-indiscernible sequence. Constant functions embed elementarily into . Take the Skolem hull of the generators. The Tarski-Vaught test gives an elementary substructure, and transporting terms along an index-order automorphism gives a well-defined automorphism of the hull, with inverse obtained by transporting along the inverse index automorphism. Equality of term representations is preserved by indiscernibility. This is the indiscernible and automorphism conclusion of Ehrenfeucht–Mostowski, obtained entirely from ultrafilters and Łoś's theorem. The ordered Fubini products need not be symmetric; order indiscernibility is exactly what their coherence supplies.
For the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem, start with an infinite structure and a total order . Choose a Skolem expansion , and adjoin constants for . Require the elementary diagram of , distinctness of these new constants, and the order-indiscernible sequence schema: any two increasing tuples of the of the same length satisfy the same first-order formulas in the expanded language. Every finite fragment mentions finitely many new constants and finitely many first-order formulas. Enumerate a countably infinite subset of . For each of the finitely many first-order formulas, color its increasing tuples by its truth value in , including whatever fixed parameters occur in the fragment. Successive applications of the infinite Ramsey theorem leave an infinite subset homogeneous for all these colorings. Assign the finitely many new constants to distinct elements of this subset in their index order. Their finite indiscernibility requirements and the elementary diagram are then simultaneously satisfied.
The compactness theorem supplies an elementary extension containing the required distinct indiscernibles. Their Skolem hull is an elementary substructure: an existential first-order formula true of its elements has its chosen Skolem-function witness in the hull, so the Tarski-Vaught test applies. Any order automorphism of acts on this hull by
Indiscernibility makes this well defined, since every equality of two term representations is preserved. The same argument preserves every first-order formula; the inverse is given by . Thus it is an automorphism, uniquely determined in the language of the chosen Skolem expansion by its values on the generators. This proves both the indiscernible-model and automorphism forms of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem. Uniqueness is not claimed for automorphisms of the reduct which need not preserve the chosen Skolem functions.
For simple typed set theory with atoms, write for the set predicate at sort . Members have sort one lower; urelements have no typed members, extensionality applies to sets, and every well-typed first-order formula defines a set at the next sort. Typical ambiguity adds for each closed sentence, where raises every sort by one. We prove finite satisfiability using Ramsey theorem, rather than assuming that adjacent sorts have the same cardinality.
Let . If , then . For increasing integers , interpret sort by , interpret by the objects of , and interpret adjacent-sort membership by actual membership restricted to these designated sets. All other objects of a sort are typed urelements. Every subset of is a designated set in , so comprehension holds for every first-order formula, including first-order formulas with quantifiers and parameters at other sorts. Two designated sets with the same members are equal, while the other objects have no typed members. Thus this is a full model of the typed axioms for every increasing sequence of levels. The extra preceding level gives a consistent interpretation of the bottom set predicate as well.
Take finitely many ambiguity sentences and let bound their highest sort before raising. Color increasing -tuples by the vector of truth values of these sentences in the corresponding finite sorted structure. There are finitely many colors. The infinite Ramsey theorem supplies an homogeneous set of indices. Choose the level sequence from it. The sentence is evaluated in the window , while is evaluated in the next window ; homogeneity makes their truth values equal. Sentences using fewer sorts simply ignore the unused final levels. Thus every finite family of ambiguity axioms has a model satisfying all the typed axioms. Apply many-sorted first-order compactness theorem to obtain
This is a relative consistency construction in the ordinary set-theoretic metatheory. Allowing urelements is essential here: skipping ranks leaves objects outside the represented power sets, and those objects must be permitted as urelements.
The Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem asserts that an infinite first-order structure has, for any prescribed total order , an elementary extension containing distinct order-indiscernibles . After a Skolem expansion, the Skolem hull of those generators is a model of the original complete theory. Every order automorphism of extends to a unique automorphism of this specified Skolem hull in the expanded language.
Choose a Skolem expansion of the original infinite structure: for each existential formula, select a witness function, including nullary functions when needed. Add constants for and the elementary diagram of a structure of , using separate names for its elements. Require for distinct indices, and for each formula in the Skolem language require
whenever both index tuples are strictly increasing. These are the order-indiscernible sequence requirements.
Every finite fragment is satisfiable in . Choose a countably infinite sequence of distinct elements of . The fragment mentions only finitely many formulas and arities. Color increasing -tuples of that sequence by the finite vector of truth values of its relevant -ary formulas. The Ramsey theorem supplies an infinite homogeneous subsequence; repeat for the finitely many arities. Assign the finitely many named to distinct elements of the final homogeneous subsequence in increasing index order. The fixed finite part of the elementary diagram of a structure already holds in . By the compactness theorem proved in Question 5, the full set of requirements has a model , giving the required elementary extension and order-indiscernible sequence.
Let comprise all values of Skolem-language terms in finitely many . It is closed under the witness functions. If for parameters in , the specified witness function supplies a witness in . Induction on formulas therefore gives ; its reduct is a model of . For infinite , its cardinality is at most and at least .
For an order automorphism , define
Rewrite any finite list of indices in increasing order, allowing a term to repeat or omit variables. The order-indiscernible sequence property transfers every equality between terms and every relation among their values, making this definition well defined and elementary. Applying gives its inverse. All of is generated by the and the named Skolem functions, so an automorphism extending must have precisely this action. Thus , with uniqueness in the Skolem expansion. This uniqueness need not hold in the unexpanded reduct.
The Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem says that an infinite first-order structure , after Skolem expansion, has an elementarily equivalent model generated as a Skolem hull by distinct order-indiscernible sequence for any prescribed linear order . Every order automorphism of extends uniquely to an automorphism preserving this Skolem expansion. The reduct still models , but uniqueness of an automorphism in the reduct alone is not asserted. Iterate adjoining witness functions through all successively enlarged languages, so every existential formula in the final language has its own Skolem function. Write for the resulting expanded structure.
For the Ramsey theorem proof, add constants and require that they are distinct and that every two increasing tuples of the same length agree on every formula of the expanded language. Include . A finite fragment mentions finitely many formulas and finitely many indices, say of them. Choose distinct . For each arity occurring in those formulas, color the increasing tuples of natural numbers by their finite truth vectors in . Repeated applications of the infinite Ramsey theorem give an infinite subset homogeneous for all these finitely many colorings. Interpret the constants by its first elements, in their prescribed order. All the fragment's indiscernibility requirements hold. Thus compactness theorem produces a model of the whole scheme.
Let be the Skolem hull of the . Whenever an existential formula with parameters in holds in , its chosen Skolem witness belongs to . The Tarski-Vaught test, proved by the existential step of induction on formulas, therefore makes . For an order automorphism , define
To compare different term presentations, collect all their indices into one increasing tuple. Indiscernibility transfers the equality of the terms to the transported tuple, so this map is well defined. The same argument transfers every relation; it preserves all functions by construction, and the map for is its inverse. Since every hull element is a term in the generators, uniqueness follows.
For a genuinely ultraproduct proof, keep the distinct and choose a nonprincipal ultrafilter on . For each finite ordered subset , take
where is the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters. Explicitly, a subset is large if its indicator is true after successively applying “for -almost every ” in the increasing coordinate order. Projection to any sublist has exactly that sublist's product ultrafilter. Hence for , pulling functions back along gives an elementary embedding by the Łoś theorem. These embeddings commute. Form their directed limit of elementary embeddings; each finite tuple lies in one stage, so induction on formulas makes the stage embeddings elementary.
At a stage containing , let be the class of the coordinate function . If , equality of these coordinate functions is small: for a fixed first coordinate there is only one possible equal second coordinate, and a singleton is not in . Thus . For any increasing , the truth of is the same nested ultrafilter test applied to , independent of the actual indices. This is precisely indiscernibility in the expanded language. Its Skolem hull, and the term-transport construction above, finish the second proof. Both constructions give the required model and the extended index automorphisms.
Use a relative consistency construction: a model of ZF gives one of ZFC through , and we construct a model of New Foundations with urelements from it. In the language with membership and a unary predicate , NFU requires that atoms have no members, extensionality holds between sets, and every stratified formula has a set extension. A type assignment gives equal variables equal types and raises type by one across membership. We prove the actual comprehension scheme, rather than invoke its consistency by name.
Start with a model and Skolemize it. Apply the Ramsey construction from Question 1 to obtain increasing ordinal indiscernibles , all greater than . The finite satisfiability step uses the infinite increasing list in the original model. Include the ordinal and ordering requirements in the finite truth colorings. Ramsey and compactness produce the indiscernibles; their Skolem hull still models ZFC. The index shift gives an external structure automorphism of with . Such a model is necessarily externally ill-founded: is an external descending ordinal sequence. No well-founded-model hypothesis is being smuggled in.
For every integer , let be the external domain consisting of the objects of belonging internally to . At type , declare iff says . Use membership of only for flagged targets; an unflagged object has no typed members. A flagged object is a set of the preceding type. Set-extensionality holds since all members of a flagged set lie in .
Every typed comprehension instance holds. Translate its finitely many typed quantifiers into quantifiers bounded by the appropriate sets . Separation in gives its extension for the distinguished free variable of type . Since , this subset is an object of and satisfies its set predicate. Also is bijective and preserves the typed relations and flags. This is the required type-shifting automorphism.
Collapse to the single domain by defining
If , its image is a subset of , so its entire extension is visible in . The flag is necessary: an unflagged object might otherwise have a partial visible extension. Flagged coextensive objects have equal images under , by extensionality in , and hence are equal; atoms have no -members.
Now take a stratified untyped formula . Shift its type assignment so that has type zero, allowing negative integer types for other variables. Send a variable of assigned type to of its untyped value. Equality is preserved, and membership translates to flagged ordinary membership from type to type . A set predicate translates to its flag at that type. Quantifiers correspond bijectively under . Thus induction on the formula gives exact agreement between its untyped truth and this typed translation.
Typed comprehension supplies an object , flagged at type one, containing exactly the type-zero solutions. Let . It is flagged at type zero, and for every , iff iff . This proves all stratified comprehension, including an empty set and the universal set. We have constructed
If infinity is included in the convention for NFU, the same construction supports it: and its successor graph lie far below and are fixed by , since they are definable without parameters in . The domain of the new set is the old , since . An ordered pair in the new membership relation is of the old Kuratowski pair. The old successor graph is fixed as a whole by , so its elements are exactly these recoded pairs as ranges over . It therefore supplies an actual new successor injection with proper range. This does not assume that fixes each nonstandard natural number. This is the rank-shifting automorphism construction of NFU; its logical ingredients are precisely the proved indiscernible-model construction and ordinary set separation in the typed domains.
A useful precise form of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem is this: for an infinite structure and any linear order , a model of can be generated as a Skolem hull by distinct order indiscernibles . Every order automorphism of extends to an automorphism of that hull in the chosen Skolem language. One may first name all elements of , giving an elementary extension containing the original structure. The generation and uniqueness assertions concern this specified expansion, not arbitrary automorphisms of its reduct.
Choose a Skolem expansion : for each existential formula add a function selecting a witness whenever one exists. Introduce constants for . Take the theory of , distinctness of these constants, and all equivalences
The formulas here are in the fixed expanded language, without the newly added as extra parameters. If naming , use its complete elementary diagram and allow those original names in the formulas.
Every finite fragment has a model by Ramsey's theorem. Only finitely many formulas and constants occur. Take a sequence of distinct elements of . For each arity appearing, color the increasing tuples from this sequence by the finite vector of truth values of all formulas of that arity. Successive Ramsey thinning gives an infinite subset homogeneous for each of these finitely many colorings. Assign the finitely many constants in increasing order to distinct elements of this subset. This satisfies every displayed equivalence in the fragment; the original theory is satisfied because the underlying structure remains . Compactness now gives a model of the full theory, with the required order-indiscernible sequence.
The substructure generated by the constants under the Skolem functions is elementary: any existential formula with parameters which are terms in the generators has its Skolem witness in that same hull. If is an order automorphism of , define
Indiscernibility makes this well-defined, by applying it to the equation between any two term representations using the increasing tuple of all their indices. The same argument preserves every relation and function; supplies the inverse. It is unique in the generated Skolem structure. This completes the Ramsey proof, rather than stopping at the existence of indiscernibles.
For simple typed set theory with atoms, use sorts and membership only from to . A set predicate distinguishes sets from atoms, extensionality compares sets of the same positive type, and comprehension produces in type every subset of defined by a well-typed formula. Atoms have no members. First-order models use Henkin semantics; they are not required to have their next domain equal to the full external power set. Typical ambiguity is the schema for each closed sentence, where every sort index in is raised by one.
We show finite satisfiability of this entire typed theory with ambiguity. Choose a list of ranks above , spaced by at least two. For a finite increasing selection of ranks , let
where is the set of objects declared to be sets at type . Membership from to is ordinary membership restricted to objects of ; all other type- objects are atoms. The spacing puts inside . Thus comprehension and set extensionality hold exactly, and atoms have no typed members. There are infinitely many objects at every visible type, so any usual typed infinity requirement also holds.
The auxiliary rank provides a uniform interpretation if a set predicate is allowed at type zero; no type-minus-one domain is used in the theory. This avoids artificially declaring all type-zero objects to be atoms, which would not be invariant under type-raising. If the language has no type-zero set predicate, simply ignore this auxiliary interpretation.
A finite set of ambiguity instances uses finitely many closed sentences of bounded highest type, say at most . Color increasing -tuples of ranks by their finite truth vector in the structure with visible domains and the auxiliary preceding rank. Ramsey's theorem gives an infinite homogeneous rank set. Choose consecutive ranks from it and build the hierarchy on all these ranks. The first window evaluates each original sentence; shifting the window one place evaluates its uniform type-raise. Homogeneity makes the truth vectors equal. All finite typed axioms and the selected ambiguity instances therefore hold together. Choosing large enough covers every sort needed by the finite fragment. Many-sorted compactness, equivalently ordinary first-order compactness after encoding sorts, yields
This is a model existence argument in the ambient set theory; no equality of adjacent type cardinalities is claimed. The gaps between ranks supply atoms, and the ambiguity is about truth of sentences, not a bijection between domains.
We prove the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem by ordered products of ultrafilters, without using Ramsey's theorem. Choose a Skolem expansion of the infinite structure and distinct elements . Fix a nonprincipal ultrafilter on .
For a finite increasing subset of the desired index order , define the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters on by
The notation means that the set of satisfying belongs to ; the leftmost quantifier is outermost. Upward closure and intersection follow successively at each coordinate, and applying complement at each step proves the ultrafilter dichotomy. Products are ordered; no false claim of symmetry is needed.
Put , with . If , pullback of a function by coordinate projection induces
For a cylinder condition involving only coordinates in , deleting the unused ultrafilter quantifiers makes its membership in exactly its membership in . The Łoś theorem therefore makes an elementary embedding, not merely a homomorphism. The projection identities give .
Take the directed limit of this system: elements from two stages are identified if their images agree at a common larger finite stage, and formulas are evaluated at such a stage. Elementary coherence makes this well-defined. It also makes each stage elementary in the limit: a formula uses finitely many parameters, and an existential witness at a later stage can be pulled back at the level of existential truth because the transition maps are elementary. Denote the limit by .
For each , let be the limit image of the coordinate function . These elements are distinct. For , after fixing , equality holds for at most one , a set not in ; hence equality fails in the two-coordinate ultrapower and therefore in the limit.
For any increasing , Łoś evaluates
The right-hand side depends on the formula and the number of increasing coordinates, not their particular indices. Thus is order-indiscernible for every formula of the expanded language simultaneously; no preliminary homogeneous thinning is used. If elements of were named before expanding, the same computation gives indiscernibility over those names and the initial stage embeds the original structure into the limit.
The Skolem hull of these generators is elementary by the witness property. Transporting the generators by any order automorphism of transports every term, with well-definedness and relation preservation supplied by the formula equivalence just proved. The inverse transport supplies an inverse automorphism. The ordered-ultrapower construction gives the full Ehrenfeucht–Mostowski model and its order automorphisms without Ramsey's theorem.
For the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem, let be an infinite first-order structure and any linear order. Choose a full Skolem expansion : add witness functions for existential formulas, repeat in the expanded languages, and take their union. We will construct a model of its theory containing distinct generators , , forming an order-indiscernible sequence.
Adjoin the elementary diagram of , the inequalities for , and for every expanded-language formula and every two increasing -tuples of indices, the sentences
Every finite subcollection is satisfiable in . To prove this, choose a countably infinite sequence of distinct elements of , and for each of the finitely many relevant arities color its increasing index tuples by the finite vector of truth values of the formulas of that arity. Repeated applications of the Ramsey's theorem give an infinite subsequence homogeneous for all these finitely many finite colorings. Interpret the finitely many mentioned by its elements in their index order. All indiscernibility and distinctness constraints hold, and the finite diagram fragment holds because the ambient structure is still .
By compactness theorem, a model of the full enlarged theory exists. Its Skolem hull generated by the is elementary: whenever an existential formula with parameters in holds in , its chosen witness function returns a value in , so the Tarski-Vaught test applies. Its reduct is a model of . If the index order has size , the hull has size at most , and it contains distinct generators.
Every order automorphism of induces the automorphism
To check well-definedness, write any two terms being compared over the same increasing list of their generators. Their equality is an expanded-language formula; indiscernibility of the order-indiscernible sequence preserves its truth under . The same argument preserves each relation, and the term construction preserves the functions. Applying gives the inverse. The extension is unique in the specified Skolem language since every hull element is a term in the generators; no uniqueness among all automorphisms of the reduct is being asserted. This proves the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem, including its usual automorphism consequence.
For simple typed set theory with atoms, use sorts , predicates for sets, and typed membership from sort to sort . Atoms have no members, extensionality compares sets, and every well-typed formula defines a set of the next sort. Typical ambiguity is the schema for every closed typed sentence, where the superscript raises all types by one.
Here are concrete full typed models before imposing the ambiguity schema. Choose increasing natural numbers and set
The auxiliary merely interprets the set predicate at the lowest sort. Define typed membership by
Then the other objects of are atoms, regardless of their old membership. Every subset of has its representative in , giving comprehension even for formulas with higher-sort quantifiers and parameters. Extensionality holds for the set representatives and atoms have no typed members. The rank gaps leave infinitely many atoms at each sort, and all sorts are infinite.
Consider finitely many ambiguity instances with unraised sentences , and choose a fixed window length sufficient to include every sort used and its auxiliary predecessor. Color every increasing -tuple of natural numbers by the vector of truth values of these unraised sentences in its finite rank-window interpretation. There are only colors. The Ramsey's theorem gives an infinite homogeneous set. Choose successive points from it. The first points and last points have the same color, while the latter interpretation of is exactly the former model's interpretation of . The auxiliary predecessor shifts too, so this remains true for sentences mentioning the lowest set predicate. Extend the chosen rank sequence arbitrarily to interpret the remaining sorts. This yields a model of typed set theory satisfying all the specified ambiguity instances.
Thus every finite subset of the typed axioms together with all ambiguity instances has a model. Applying multisorted compactness theorem gives
The final model satisfies first-order typed comprehension, with quantification over its own sorts and sets as in Henkin semantics.
Let be a full Skolem expansion of an infinite structure , choose distinct for , and extend the cofinite filter to a nonprincipal ultrafilter on . For a finite subset of the desired index order , define the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters on by
where means . These nested tests decide complements and preserve intersections by induction on , so is indeed an ultrafilter. For the empty set use the one-point index set and its principal ultrafilter.
Put . If , projection of coordinates induces
A truth test independent of a coordinate is unchanged by its dummy ultrafilter quantifier. Consequently pullback preserves exactly the -large subsets, proving that the map is well defined and injective. The Łoś theorem, applied to every formula rather than just to equality, proves that it is an elementary embedding. Projections compose, so these elementary maps form a coherent directed system.
Take its directed limit of elementary embeddings . Explicitly identify two stage elements when their images agree at a common larger stage, and interpret functions and relations there. For an existential formula true in the limit, its parameters and a witness occur at a common stage; elementarity then pulls truth back to the stage of the original parameters. This verifies that all stage maps into the limit are elementary.
Let be the image in this limit of the coordinate class . These elements are distinct: in , equality would require , whose inner-coordinate section is a singleton and hence not in the nonprincipal . For , the truth of any expanded-language formula on is exactly
This expression depends on the formula and the tuple length, not on the chosen increasing indices. Thus is an order-indiscernible sequence. The empty-coordinate stage embeds elementarily into .
Their Skolem hull is elementary by the witness-function argument, and an order automorphism of extends to it by transporting the generators in every term. Equality and relation preservation follow from the displayed uniform truth test, and the inverse order automorphism gives the inverse map. Therefore this proves the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem through ultrapowers and their directed limit, with no Ramsey-theoretic step.