Canonical modal logics and ultrafilter extensions

Abstract

In this paper the canonical modal logics, a kind of complete modal logics introduced in K. Fine [4] and R. I. Goldblatt [5], will be characterized semantically using the concept of an ultrafilter extension , an operation on frames inspired by the algebraic theory of modal logic. Theorem 8 of R. I. Goldblatt and S. K. Thomason [6] characterizing the modally definable Σ⊿-elementary classes of frames will follow as a corollary. A second corollary is Theorem 2 of [4] which states that any complete modal logic defining a Σ⊿-elementary class of frames is canonical. The main tool in obtaining these results is the duality between modal algebras and general frames developed in R. I. Goldblatt [5]. The relevant notions and results from this theory will be stated in §2. The concept of a canonical modal logic is introduced and motivated in §3, which also contains the above-mentioned theorems. In §4, a kind of appendix to the preceding discussion, preservation of first-order sentences under ultrafilter extensions (and some other relevant operations on frames) is discussed. The modal language to be considered here has an infinite supply of proposition letters ( p, q, r , …), a propositional constant ⊥ (the so-called falsum , standing for a fixed contradiction), the usual Boolean operators ¬ (not), ∨ (or), ∨ (and), → (if … then …), and ↔ (if and only if)—with ¬ and ∨ regarded as primitives—and the two unary modal operators ◇ (possibly) and □ (necessarily)— ◇ being regarded as primitive. Modal formulas will be denoted by lower case Greek letters, sets of formulas by Greek capitals.