Modal formulas are either elementary or not ΣΔ-elementary

Abstract

In this paper we prove that if L is a set of modal propositional formulas then FR(L) (the class of all frames in which every formula of L holds) is elementary, Δ-elementary or not ΣΔ-elementary. For single modal formulas the second of these cases does not occur.The model theoretic terminology and results used here are from [1]. (The underlying first order language contains only one, binary, predicate letter in addition to the identity symbol.) We presuppose familiarity with the usual notions and notations of propositional modal logic. A structure for our first order language is called a frame. (So a frame is an ordered couple 〈W, R〉 with domain W and R a binary predicate on W, i.e. a subset of W × W.) A valuation V on F is a function from the set of proposition letters to the power set of W. Using the well-known Kripke truth definition V can be extended to a function from the set of all modal propositional formulas to the power set of W. A modal propositional formula φ holds in a frame F (= 〈W, R〉) if, for all V on F, V(φ) = W. Notation: FR(φ) for the class of all frames in which φ holds. For a set L of modal propositional formulas we define FR(L) as ⋂φ∈LFR(φ). Obviously both FR(L) and cFR(L) (the complement of FR(L)) are closed under isomorphisms.