Beth definability in infinitary languages
Some negative results will be proved concerning the following for certain infinitary languages ℒ1 and ℒ2.Definition. Beth(ℒ1, ℒ2) iff, for every sentence ϕ(R) of ℒ1, and n-place relation symbols R and S such that S does not occur in ϕ(R), ifthen there is an ℒ2 formula θ(x1, …, xn) such thatand θ is built up using only those constant and relation symbols of ϕ other than R.That is, Beth(ℒ1, ℒ2) iff for every implicit ℒ1 definition ϕ(R) of relations, there is a corresponding explicit ℒ2 definition θ. Beth(ℒωω, ℒωω) was proved by Beth.Malitz proved that not Beth(ℒω1 ω1, ℒ∞∞) (hence not Beth (ℒ∞∞, ℒ∞∞)), but Beth (ℒ∞ω, ℒ∞∞). In §1, it is shown that Beth(ℒ∞ω, ℒ∞ω) is false. In §2, we strengthen this by showing that, for every cardinal κ, not Beth(ℒ∞ω, ℒ∞κ). In fact, not Beth (ℒκ+ω, ℒ∞κ) follows from property A(κ) defined in §2, and A(κ) is known for regular κ > ω (unpublished result of Morley).More information on infinitary Beth and Craig theorems is given in [2] and [3]. We assume that the reader is acquainted with the languages ℒκλ which allow conjunctions over ≺κ formulas and quantifiers over ≺λ variables. Thus, we assume that the reader is acquainted with the back and forth argument for showing that two structures are ≡∞κ (ℒ∞κ-elementarily equivalent). Our notation is fairly standard.