The equational theory of CA3 is undecidable

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Maddux

There is no algorithm for determining whether or not an equation is true in every 3-dimensional cylindric algebra. This theorem completes the solution to the problem of finding those values of α and β for which the equational theories of CAα and RCAβ are undecidable. (CAα and RCAβ are the classes of α-dimensional cylindric algebras and representable β-dimensional cylindric algebras. See [4] for definitions.) This problem was considered in [3]. It was known that RCA0 = CA0 and RCA1 = CA1 and that the equational theories of these classes are decidable. Tarski had shown that the equational theory of relation algebras is undecidable and, by utilizing connections between relation algebras and cylindric algebras, had also shown that the equational theories of CAα and RCAβ are undecidable whenever 4 ≤ α and 3 ≤ β. (Tarski's argument also applies to some varieties K ⊆ RCAβ with 3 ≤ β and to any variety K such that RCAα ⊆ K ⊆ CAα and 4 ≤ α.)Thus the only cases left open in 1961 were CA2, RCA2 and CA3. Shortly there-after Henkin proved, in one of Tarski's seminars at Berkeley, that the equational theory of CA2 is decidable, and Scott proved that the set of valid sentences in a first-order language with only two variables is recursive [11]. (For a more model-theoretic proof of Scott's theorem see [9].) Scott's result is equivalent to the decidability of the equational theory of RCA2, so the only case left open was CA3.

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Hirsch ◽  
Ian Hodkinson ◽  
Roger D. Maddux

AbstractWe confirm a conjecture, about neat embeddings of cylindric algebras, made in 1969 by J. D. Monk, and a later conjecture by Maddux about relation algebras obtained from cylindric algebras. These results in algebraic logic have the following consequence for predicate logic: for every finite cardinal α ≥ 3 there is a logically valid sentence X, in a first-order language ℒ with equality and exactly one nonlogical binary relation symbol E, such that X contains only 3 variables (each of which may occur arbitrarily many times), X has a proof containing exactly α + 1 variables, but X has no proof containing only α variables. This solves a problem posed by Tarski and Givant in 1987.


1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 854-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Feldman

In this paper we discuss cylindric algebras with terms. The setting is two—sorted algebras—one sort for terms and one for Boolean elements. As with cylindric algebras, a cylindric algebra with terms has its roots in first order predicate logic [HMT1].Let Σ be a set of sentences in a first order language with terms, equality and variables u0,u1,u2, …, Define a relation ≡Σ on Fm, the set of formulas, by φ ≡Σθ if and only if Σ ⊢ φ ↔ θ, and on Tm, the set of terms, by τ ≡Σσ if and only if Σ ⊢ τ ≈ σ. The operations +, ·, cκ, 0, 1 are defined as usual on equivalence classes. Define , where is σ with τ substituted for all occurrences of uκ. That the operation *κ, for κ < α, is well defined follows from the first order axioms of equality. Let vκ = [uκ]. To establish the link between terms and Booleans, define operations oκ as follows: , where φ' is a variant of φ such that uκ is free for τ in φ′ and is φ′ with τ substituted for all free occurrences of uκ in φ′. From the first order axioms it follows that oκ, for κ < α, is well defined. Finally, instead of diagonal elements, we define a Boolean-valued operation on terms as follows: [τ] e [σ] = [τ ≈ σ].


1969 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Donald Monk

Cylindric algebras were introduced by Alfred Tarski about 1952 to provide an algebraic analysis of (first-order) predicate logic. With each cylindric algebra one can, in fact, associate a certain, in general infinitary, predicate logic; for locally finite cylindric algebras of infinite dimension the associated predicate logics are finitary. As with Boolean algebras and sentential logic, the algebraic counterpart of completeness is representability. Tarski proved the fundamental result that every locally finite cylindric algebra of infinite dimension is representable.


2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Stebletsova ◽  
Yde Venema

AbstractWith each projective geometry we can associate a Lyndon algebra. Such an algebra always satisfies Tarski's axioms for relation algebras and Lyndon algebras thus form an interesting connection between the fields of projective geometry and algebraic logic. In this paper we prove that if G is a class of projective geometries which contains an infinite projective geometry of dimension at least three, then the class L(G) of Lyndon algebras associated with projective geometries in G has an undecidable equational theory. In our proof we develop and use a connection between projective geometries and diagonal-free cylindric algebras.


1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1333-1338
Author(s):  
Cornelia Kalfa

In [4] I proved that in any nontrivial algebraic language there are no algorithms which enable us to decide whether a given finite set of equations Σ has each of the following properties except P2 (for which the problem is open):P0(Σ) = the equational theory of Σ is equationally complete.P1(Σ) = the first-order theory of Σ is complete.P2(Σ) = the first-order theory of Σ is model-complete.P3(Σ) = the first-order theory of the infinite models of Σ is complete.P4(Σ) = the first-order theory of the infinite models of Σ is model-complete.P5(Σ) = Σ has the joint embedding property.In this paper I prove that, in any finite trivial algebraic language, such algorithms exist for all the above Pi's. I make use of Ehrenfeucht's result [2]: The first-order theory generated by the logical axioms of any trivial algebraic language is decidable. The results proved here are part of my Ph.D. thesis [3]. I thank Wilfrid Hodges, who supervised it.Throughout the paper is a finite trivial algebraic language, i.e. a first-order language with equality, with one operation symbol f of rank 1 and at most finitely many constant symbols.


1976 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
George F. McNulty

Though equations are among the simplest sentences available in a first order language, many of the most familiar notions from algebra can be expressed by sets of equations. It is the task of this paper to expose techniques and theorems that can be used to establish that many collections of finite sets of equations characterized by common algebraic or logical properties fail to be recursive. The following theorem is typical.Theorem. In a language provided with an operation symbol of rank at least two, the collection of finite irredundant sets of equations is not recursive.Theorems of this kind are part of a pattern of research into decision problems in equational logic. This pattern finds its origins in the works of Markov [8] and Post [20] and in Tarski's development of the theory of relation algebras; see Chin [1], Chin and Tarski [2], and Tarski [23]. The papers of Mal′cev [7] and Perkins [16] are more directly connected with the present paper, which includes generalization of much of Perkins' work as well as extensions of a theorem of D. Smith [22]. V. L. Murskii [14] contains some of the results below discovered independently. Not all known results concerning undecidable properties of finite sets of equations seem to be susceptible to the methods presented here. R. McKenzie, for example, shows in [9] that for a language with an operation symbol of rank at least two, the collection of finite sets of equations with nontrivial finite models is not recursive. D. Pigozzi has extended and elaborated the techniques of this paper in [17], [18], and [19] to obtain new results concerning undecidable properties, particularly those of algebraic character.


1995 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 591-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yde Venema

AbstractTreating the existential quantification ∃νi as a diamond ♢i and the identity νi = νj as a constant δij, we study restricted versions of first order logic as if they were modal formalisms. This approach is closely related to algebraic logic, as the Kripke frames of our system have the type of the atom structures of cylindric algebras; the full cylindric set algebras are the complex algebras of the intended multidimensional frames called cubes.The main contribution of the paper is a characterization of these cube frames for the finite-dimensional case and, as a consequence of the special form of this characterization, a completeness theorem for this class. These results lead to finite, though unorthodox, derivation systems for several related formalisms, e.g. for the valid n-variable first order formulas, for type-free valid formulas and for the equational theory of representable cylindric algebras. The result for type-free valid formulas indicates a positive solution to Problem 4.16 of Henkin, Monk and Tarski [16].


1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 951-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger D. Maddux

AbstractThe set of equations which use only one variable and hold in all representable relation algebras cannot be derived from any finite set of equations true in all representable relation algebras. Similar results hold for cylindric algebras and for logic with finitely many variables. The main tools are a construction of nonrepresentable one-generated relation algebras, a method for obtaining cylindric algebras from relation algebras, and the use of relation algebras in defining algebraic semantics for first-order logic.


1971 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Fuhrken ◽  
W. Taylor

A relational structure is called weakly atomic-compact if and only if every set Σ of atomic formulas (taken from the first-order language of the similarity type of augmented by a possibly uncountable set of additional variables as “unknowns”) is satisfiable in whenever every finite subset of Σ is so satisfiable. This notion (as well as some related ones which will be mentioned in §4) was introduced by J. Mycielski as a generalization to model theory of I. Kaplansky's notion of an algebraically compact Abelian group (cf. [5], [7], [1], [8]).


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