English

A descriptive Main Gap Theorem

Logic 2020-04-07 v2

Abstract

Answering one of the main questions of [FHK14, Chapter 7], we show that there is a tight connection between the depth of a classifiable shallow theory TT and the Borel rank of the isomorphism relation Tκ\cong^\kappa_T on its models of size κ\kappa, for κ\kappa any cardinal satisfying κ<κ=κ>20\kappa^{< \kappa} = \kappa > 2^{\aleph_0}. This is achieved by establishing a link between said rank and the Lκ\mathcal{L}_{\infty \kappa}-Scott height of the κ\kappa-sized models of TT, and yields to the following descriptive set-theoretical analogue of Shelah's Main Gap Theorem: Given a countable complete first-order theory TT, either Tκ\cong^\kappa_T is Borel with a countable Borel rank (i.e. very simple, given that the length of the relevant Borel hierarchy is κ+>1\kappa^+ > \aleph_1), or it is not Borel at all. The dividing line between the two situations is the same as in Shelah's theorem, namely that of classifiable shallow theories. We also provide a Borel reducibility version of the above theorem, discuss some limitations to the possible (Borel) complexities of Tκ\cong^\kappa_T, and provide a characterization of categoricity of TT in terms of the descriptive set-theoretical complexity of Tκ\cong^\kappa_T.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.07841,
  title  = {A descriptive Main Gap Theorem},
  author = {Francesco Mangraviti and Luca Motto Ros},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.07841},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

34 pages; added comments on topological smoothness for isomorphism relations over countable models and on the classification of non-complete theories; accepted for publication on the Journal of Mathematical Logic

R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:17:59.838Z