On countable chains having decidable monadic theory

Rationals and countable ordinals are important examples of structures with decidable monadic second-order theories. A chain is an expansion of a linear order by monadic predicates. We show that if the monadic second-order theory of a countable chain C is decidable then C has a non-trivial expansion with decidable monadic second-order theory.

Selection in the monadic theory of a countable ordinal

A monadic formula ψ(Y) is a selector for a formula φ(Y) in a structure if there exists a unique subset P of which satisfies ψ and this P also satisfies φ. We show that for every ordinal α ≥ ωω there are formulas having no selector in the structure (α, <). For α ≤ ω1, we decide which formulas have a selector in (α, <) , and construct selectors for them. We deduce the impossibility of a full generalization of the Büchi-Landweber solvability theorem from (ω, <) to (ωω, <). We state a partial extension of that theorem to all countable ordinals. To each formula we assign a selection degree which measures “how difficult it is to select”. We show that in a countable ordinal all non-selectable formulas share the same degree.