On Preservation Theorems for Two‐Variable Logic

Abstract
We show that the existential preservation theorem fails for two‐variable first‐order logic FO2. It is known that for all k ≥ 3, FOk does not have an existential preservation theorem, so this settles the last open case, answering a question of Andreka, van Benthem, and Németi. In contrast, we prove that the homomorphism preservation theorem holds for FO2.

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