Extension Preservation in the Finite and Prefix Classes of First Order Logic
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It is well known that the classic Łoś-Tarski preservation theorem fails in the finite: there are first-order definable classes of finite structures closed under extensions which are not definable (in the finite) in the existential fragment of first-order logic. We strengthen this by constructing for every n, first-order definable classes of finite structures closed under extensions which are not definable with n quantifier alternations. The classes we construct are definable in the extension of Datalog with negation and indeed in the existential fragment of transitive-closure logic. This answers negatively an open question posed by Rosen and Weinstein.
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