Regular Choice Functions and Uniformisations For countable Domains

Abstract

We view languages of words over a product alphabet A x B as relations between words over A and words over B. This leads to the notion of regular relations - relations given by a regular language. We ask when it is possible to find regular uniformisations of regular relations. The answer depends on the structure or shape of the underlying model: it is true e.g. for ω-words, while false for words over ℤ or for infinite trees.
In this paper we focus on countable orders. Our main result characterises, which countable linear orders D have the property that every regular relation between words over D has a regular uniformisation. As it turns out, the only obstacle for uniformisability is the one displayed in the case of ℤ - non-trivial automorphisms of the given structure. Thus, we show that either all regular relations over D have regular uniformisations, or there is a non-trivial automorphism of D and even the simple relation of choice cannot be uniformised. Moreover, this dichotomy is effective.