Cardinality preservation under elementary extensions

Question

Is there a first order language $L$ and an $L$-structure $M$ with $|M|<|L|$ s.t. every proper elementary extension of $M$ has cardinality $\ge |L|$?

Answer 1

Yes. Here's a standard example: Consider the language $L = \{<\}\cup \{f\mid f\colon \mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N}\}$, where $<$ is a binary relation symbol and for each function $f\colon \mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N}$, $f$ is a unary function symbol. We have $|L| = 2^{\aleph_0}$.

We view $\mathbb{N}$ as an $L$-structure, where the symbols have their natural interpretations. Of course, $|\mathbb{N}| = \aleph_0 < |L|$.

Here are two exercises for you:

• If $\mathbb{N}\preceq \mathcal{N}$, then for any $n\in \mathcal{N}\setminus \mathbb{N}$, we have $k < n$ for all $k\in \mathbb{N}$.
• For $f,g\colon \mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N}$, we say that $f$ and $g$ are almost disjoint if there exists some $k\in \mathbb{N}$ such that $f(x)\neq g(x)$ for all $x\in \mathbb{N}$ with $k < x$. There exists a family $\mathcal{F}$ of $2^{\aleph_0}$-many functions $\mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N}$ which is pairwise almost disjoint.

Now suppose $\mathbb{N}\preceq \mathcal{N}$ is a proper elementary extension, and let $n\in \mathcal{N}\setminus \mathbb{N}$. For any pair of functions $f,g\in \mathcal{F}$, $f$ and $g$ are almost disjoint, so there exists $k\in \mathbb{N}$ such that $f$ and $g$ differ on all values greater than $k$. Then $\mathcal{N}\models \forall x\, (k < x \rightarrow f(x)\neq g(x))$. But $k < n$, so $f(n)\neq g(n)$. The same is true for any pair from $\mathcal{F}$, so since $\mathcal{F}$ has cardinality $2^{\aleph_0}$, the set of values $\{f(n)\mid f\in \mathcal{F}\}\subseteq \mathcal{N}$ has cardinality $2^{\aleph_0}$. Thus $|\mathcal{N}|\geq |L|$.