Minimal and prime models of complete theories of torsion free abelian groups

Abstract

We shall characterize the complete first order theories of torsion free abelian groups having algebraically prime models, elementarily prime models, minimal models, etc., using the well known invariants from [9], [3]. This study was suggested by the questions raised in [2]. Group here will always mean abelian group. For reference on groups see Fuchs [5], [6], for model theory Chang-Keisler [1]. All theories considered are theories in the first order language of group theory. A group G is minimal (strictly minimal) if H < G implies H = G (H-= G), and elementarily prime (algebraically prime) if G is elementarily (algebraically) embeddable in every H G. p, q always denote prime numbers, P the set of all primes. The p-rank of a group G, p-rk(G), is the dimension of G/pG as a vector space over Z/pZ. We define tf(p, G): = min {p-rk(G), ~o}. By the results of [9], [3], two nontrivial torsion free abelian groups G and H are elementarily equivalent iff for all primes p tf(p, G) = tf(p, H). This gives a natural 1-1 correspondence between the complete theories of nontrivial torsion free abelian groups and the functions /3 : P --~ ~o + 1. /3 will always stand for such a function, and the corresponding complete theory will be denoted by T 0. S o is the set of primes p for which/3(p) ~ 0. For more definitions see section 3. Let 13 be a function from P to o) + 1. We shall study the following questions: Does T o have an elementarily (algebraically) prime model? Does T o have a minimal (strictly minimal) model, and if this is the case, how many such models does T o have? Do the minimal and strictly minimal models of T o coincide? These questions have been studied for the special case of the theory of the