English

A Complete Bounded Theory with Unbounded Types

Logic 2026-04-29 v1

Abstract

One measure of the complexity of a first-order theory, and similarly a type, is the complexity of the formulas required to axiomatize it. We say a theory is bounded if there is an axiomatization involving only n\forall_n-formulas for some finite nn, and unbounded otherwise. One might expect bounded theories to have only bounded types. In fact, an analogue holds in infinitary logic, where the complexity of a Scott sentence roughly agrees with the complexity of the most complicated automorphism orbit. Our main result, however, shows this is not the case in the first-order setting: Namely, there can be a bounded theory, in fact 1\forall_1-axiomatizable, which has unbounded types.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.22398,
  title  = {A Complete Bounded Theory with Unbounded Types},
  author = {Hongyu Zhu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.22398},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:52:57.204Z