On the number of Dedekind cuts and two-cardinal models of dependent theories

Abstract

For an infinite cardinal $\kappa$, let $ded\kappa$ denote the supremum of the number of Dedekind cuts in linear orders of size $\kappa$. It is known that $\kappa<ded\kappa\leq 2^{\kappa}$ for all $\kappa$ and that $ded\kappa<2^{\kappa}$ is consistent for any $\kappa$ of uncountable cofinality. We prove however that $2^{\kappa}\leq ded ( ded ( ded ( ded\kappa)))$ always holds. Using this result we calculate the Hanf numbers for the existence of two-cardinal models with arbitrarily large gaps and for the existence of arbitrarily large models omitting a type in the class of countable dependent first-order theories. Specifically, we show that these bounds are as large as in the class of all countable theories.