A definable continuous rank for nonmultidimensional superstable theories

Abstract

Pillay studied nonmultidimensional superstable theories in [8], among other things defining a certain hierarchy of regular types in terms of which all other types may be analysed. Using this hierarchy, he showed that after naming a suitable ‘base’ of parameters, there are j-constructible (hence locally atomic) models over arbitrary sets (see Section 2 for definitions). It is asked at the end of [8] whether the parameter set can be removed. On a different note, it has been known for some time that in nonmultidimensional superstable theories, R∞-rank is definable for formulas having finite rank (see for example [9]). Definability of R∞-rank has had various applications in the literature, and so it is natural to ask whether the restriction to finite rank is necessary. In this paper we do not quite answer this question, but instead use Pillay's analysis to establish the existence of a ‘new’ continuous rank (the original idea for which is due to Tanović) which is defined on all complete types, reflects forking as does R∞-rank and satisfies certain definability properties.