Complete theories with countably many rigid nonisomorphic models

Abstract

Here we prove the following:Theorem. For every N ≤ ω there is a complete theory Tn having exactly n nonisomorphic rigid models and no uncountable rigid models. Moreover, each non-rigid model admits a nontrivial automorphism.The Tn are theories in the first-order predicate calculus and a rigid structure is a structure with no nontrivial endomorphisms, i.e., the only endomorphism of the structure into itself is the identity. The theorem answers a question of A. Ehrenfeucht.For the most part we use standard model theoretic notation with Th denoting the set of sentences true in and meaning . A complete set of sentences is one of the form Th for some . The universe of a structure may be denoted by ∣∣. An n-ary relation on X is a set of n tuples (x0, …, xn−1) with each xi ∈ X. All the structures encounted here will be relational. If P is an n-ary relation then P ↾ Y, the restriction of P to Y, is {(x0, …, xn−1): (x0, …, xn−1) ∈ P and x0, …, xn−1Y}.