Some model theory of modules. III. On infiniteness of sets definable in modules

Abstract

This is the third and last part of an investigation in several topics of first order model theory of modules which I began in Some model theory of modules. I. On total transcendence of modules (this Journal, vol. 48 (1983), pp. 570–574) and continued in Some model theory of modules. II. On stability and categoricity of flat modules (this Journal, vol. 48 (1983), pp. 970–985). Throughout I refer to these papers as “Part I” and “Part II”.Although these parts are only loosely connected, I will tacitly use the notation and preliminaries already introduced in the preceding ones. Further details are given in §0. Concerning Part II, the reader is assumed to be familiar with most of §1, a very small part of §4, and the criterion for elementary equivalence of modules over regular rings given in §3 (Lemma 20) of that part.Using those tools in this paper I consider completeness of the (elementary) theory of all modules (and of some of its extensions) (§2), and eliminability of cardinality quantifiers in the elementary theories of modules (§3).§2 is almost entirely devoted to a new short proof based on the technique developed in Part II of a theorem of Tukavkin which seems to be the first relevant result concerning the completeness of the theory of all modules (after the simple observation that any theory of infinite vector spaces is complete).