Abstract

We associate with any abstract logic L a family F(L) consisting, intuitively, of the limit ultrapowers which are complete extensions in the sense of L. For every countably generated [ω, ω]-compact logic L, our main applications are: (i) Elementary classes of L can be characterized in terms of $\equiv_L$ only. (ii) If U and B are countable models of a countable superstable theory without the finite cover property, then $\mathfrak{U} \equiv_L \mathfrak{B}$ . (iii) There exists the "largest" logic M such that complete extensions in the sense of M and L are the same; moreover M is still [ω,ω]-compact and satisfies an interpolation property stronger than unrelativized ▵-closure. (iv) If L = L ωω(Q α ) , then $\operatorname{cf}(\omega_\alpha) > \omega$ and $\lambda^\omega for all $\lambda . We also prove that no proper extension of L ωω generated by monadic quantifiers is compact. This strengthens a theorem of Makowsky and Shelah. We solve a problem of Makowsky concerning L κλ -compact cardinals. We partially solve a problem of Makowsky and Shelah concerning the union of compact logics