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Expansions of MSO by cardinality relations
We study expansions of the Weak Monadic Second Order theory of (N,<) by
cardinality relations, which are predicates R(X1,...,Xn) whose truth value
depends only on the cardinality of the sets X1, ...,Xn. We first provide a
(definable) criterion for definability of a cardinality relation in (N,<), and
use it to prove that for every cardinality relation R which is not definable in
(N,<), there exists a unary cardinality relation which is definable in (N,<,R)
and not in (N,<). These results resemble Muchnik and Michaux-Villemaire
theorems for Presburger Arithmetic. We prove then that + and x are definable in
(N,<,R) for every cardinality relation R which is not definable in (N,<). This
implies undecidability of the WMSO theory of (N,<,R). We also consider the
related satisfiability problem for the class of finite orderings, namely the
question whether an MSO sentence in the language {<,R} admits a finite model M
where < is interpreted as a linear ordering, and R as the restriction of some
(fixed) cardinality relation to the domain of M. We prove that this problem is
undecidable for every cardinality relation R which is not definable in (N,<).Comment: to appear in LMC
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