Two-variable logic revisited.
Yanger Ma, Tony Tan · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2019
In this paper we present another proof for the well-known small model property of two-variable logic. As far as we know, existing proofs of this property rely heavily on model theoretic concepts. In contrast, ours is combinatorial in nature and uses only a very simple counting argument, which we find intuitive and elegant. We also consider matching lower bounds.