Ranks and pregeometries in finite diagrams Original Research Article

The study of classes of models of a finite diagram was initiated by S. Shelah in 1969. A diagramD is a set of types over the empty set, and the class of models of the diagram D consists of the models of T which omit all the types not in D. In this work, we introduce a natural dependence relation on the subsets of the models for the View the MathML source-stable case which share many of the formal properties of forking. This is achieved by considering a rank for this framework which is bounded when the diagram D is View the MathML source-stable. We can also obtain pregeometries with respect to this dependence relation. The dependence relation is the natural one induced by the rank, and the pregeometries exist on the set of realizations of types of minimal rank. Finally, these concepts are used to generalize many of the classical results for models of a totally transcendental first-order theory. In fact, strong analogies arise: models are determined by their pregeometries or their relationship with their pregeometries; however the proofs are different, as we do not have compactness. This is illustrated with positive results (categoricity) as well as negative results (construction of nonisomorphic models). We also give a proof of a Two Cardinal Theorem for this context.