Tuesday, 5 February 2008

nt.number theory - Natural models of graphs?

Motivation



I want to capture the notion of natural models of finite graphs: How can natural predicates and natural relations on a given natural base class D be defined? If this succeeds the question arises if every (or which) finite graph has a natural model with respect to these "natural" ingredients.



As natural base classes I have in mind mathbbN and sets (e.g. the finite subsets of mathbbN).



Preliminaries



Let a complete description of an (unlabeled) graph be a formula



(existsx1)...(existsxn)bigwedgeineqjxineqxjwedge(forallx)bigveeix=xiwedgebigwedgei,j[neg]?Rxixj



The canonical model of such a description - seen as a categorical theory - consists of [n] as the domain A and some Rsubseteq[n]2 as the relation. It is trivially construed from the indexes of the variables (if choosen in the canonical way as it is done above).



The canonical model is at least "natural" with respect to the domain: it's not any set but a subset of a natural base set, mathbbN, singled out by a "natural" predicate/formula phi(x):=xleqn.



With respect to R, the canonical model isn't "natural": R is just any subset of A2, generally given by a formula



psi(x,y):=bigveeni,njx=niwedgey=nj


for appropriate ni,nj.



It is this kind of ad-hoc-formula I want to rule out. Maybe this can be done straight forwardly? Let for instance T be any theory of the natural numbers and L(T) be its language.




Definition: An L(T)-formula Psi(x1,...,xn) is
T-natural iff it is
T-equivalent to a formula Psi(x1,...,xn)
that doesn't contain literals of the
form xi=n with n the name of an nin>mathbbN.




(Note: I know that this definition is maybe not quite correct from the point of view of model theory, but I hope that it is sensible. If it is not: How to improve it? If it is not possible to improve it, you can stop reading here.)



Questions



The set of finite subsets of mathbbN that can be defined by a T-natural formula probably depends on T.




Question 1: Is there a theory T of
arithmetic that allows to define all
finite subsets of mathbbN by an
T-natural formula.




Furthermore:




Question 2: Is there a theory T of
arithmetic that allows to define all
finite subsets of mathbbN2 by an
T-natural formula.




Now to the natural models of graphs:




Definition: A natural T-model of a
finite graph G
is given by a domain
A=lbracexinmathbbN|>phi(x)rbrace and a relation R=>lbrace(x,y)inA2|psi(x,y)>rbrace with T-natural
formulas phi(x),psi(x,y).




Final question (maybe equivalent to Question 2):




Question 3: Is there a theory T of
arithmetic that allows to find natural
T-models for each finite graph?




If not so: How can the finite graphs with no T-natural model for any T be characterized?



Can anything be gained by considering set theory instead of arithmetic?

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