Weakly o-minimal structures and real closed fields

Abstract

A linearly ordered structure is weakly o-minimal if all of its definable sets in one variable are the union of finitely many convex sets in the structure. Weakly o-minimal structures were introduced by Dickmann, and they arise in several contexts. We here prove several fundamental results about weakly o-minimal structures. Foremost among these, we show that every weakly o-minimal ordered field is real closed. We also develop a substantial theory of definable sets in weakly o-minimal structures, patterned, as much as possible, after that for o-minimal structures.