Quantier rank

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In mathematical logic, the quantier rank of a formula is the depth of nesting of its quantiers. It plays an essential
role in model theory.
Notice that the quantier rank is a property of the formula itself (i.e. the expression in a language). Thus two logically
equivalent formulae can have dierent quantier ranks, when they express the same thing in dierent ways.

1 Denition
Quantier Rank of a Formula in First-order language (FO)
Let be a FO formula. The quantier rank of , written qr(), is dened as

qr() = 0 , if is atomic.

qr(1 2 ) = qr(1 2 ) = max(qr(1 ), qr(2 )) .

qr() = qr() .

qr(x ) = qr() + 1 .

Remarks

We write FO[n] for the set of all rst-order formulas with qr() n .

Relational FO[n] (without function symbols) is always of nite size, i.e. contains a nite number of formulas

Notice that in Prenex normal form the Quantier Rank of is exactly the number of quantiers appearing in
.

Quantier Rank of a higher order Formula

For Fixpoint logic, with a least x point operator LFP:

qr([LFP]y) = 1 + qr( )

...

2 Examples
A sentence of quantier rank 2:

xyR(x, y)

A formula of quantier rank 1:

1
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xR(y, x) xR(x, y)

A formula of quantier rank 0:

R(x, y) x = y

A sentence in prenex normal form of quantier rank 3:

xyz((x = y xRy) (x = z zRx))

A sentence, equivalent to the previous, although of quantier rank 2:

x(y(x = y xRy)) z(x = z zRx))

3 See also
Prenex normal form
Ehrenfeucht game

Quantier

4 References
Ebbinghaus, Heinz-Dieter; Flum, Jrg (1995), Finite Model Theory, Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-60149-4.
Grdel, Erich; Kolaitis, Phokion G.; Libkin, Leonid; Maarten, Marx; Spencer, Joel; Vardi, Moshe Y.; Venema,
Yde; Weinstein, Scott (2007), Finite model theory and its applications, Texts in Theoretical Computer Science.
An EATCS Series, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, p. 133, ISBN 978-3-540-00428-8, Zbl 1133.03001.

5 External links
Quantier Rank Spectrum of L-innity-omega BA Thesis, 2000
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6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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