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Concept
Compactness theorem
Summary
In mathematical logic, the compactness theorem states that a set of first-order sentences has a model if and only if every finite subset of it has a model. This theorem is an important tool in model theory, as it provides a useful (but generally not effective) method for constructing models of any set of sentences that is finitely consistent.
The compactness theorem for the propositional calculus is a consequence of Tychonoff's theorem (which says that the product of compact spaces is compact) applied to compact Stone spaces, hence the theorem's name. Likewise, it is analogous to the finite intersection property characterization of compactness in topological spaces: a collection of closed sets in a compact space has a non-empty intersection if every finite subcollection has a non-empty intersection.
The compactness theorem is one of the two key properties, along with the downward Löwenheim–Skolem theorem, that is used in Lindström's theorem to characterize first-order logic. Although there are some generalizations of the compactness theorem to non-first-order logics, the compactness theorem itself does not hold in them, except for a very limited number of examples.
Kurt Gödel proved the countable compactness theorem in 1930. Anatoly Maltsev proved the uncountable case in 1936.
The compactness theorem has many applications in model theory; a few typical results are sketched here.
The compactness theorem implies the following result, stated by Abraham Robinson in his 1949 dissertation.
Robinson's principle: If a first-order sentence holds in every field of characteristic zero, then there exists a constant such that the sentence holds for every field of characteristic larger than This can be seen as follows: suppose is a sentence that holds in every field of characteristic zero. Then its negation together with the field axioms and the infinite sequence of sentences
is not satisfiable (because there is no field of characteristic 0 in which holds, and the infinite sequence of sentences ensures any model would be a field of characteristic 0).
Official source
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