Uniformly bounded arrays and mutually algebraic structures

Abstract

We define an easily verifiable notion of an atomic formula having uniformly bounded arrays in a structure $M$. We prove that if $T$ is a complete $L$-theory, then $T$ is mutually algebraic if and only if there is some model $M$ of $T$ for which every atomic formula has uniformly bounded arrays. Moreover, an incomplete theory $T$ is mutually algebraic if and only if every atomic formula has uniformly bounded arrays in every model $M$ of $T$.