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Abstract

We study some topics around Łoś’s theorem without assuming the Axiom of Choice. We prove that Łoś’s fundamental theorem on ultraproducts is equivalent to a weak form that every ultrapower is elementarily equivalent to its source structure. On the other hand, it is consistent that there is a structure $M$ and an ultrafilter $U$ such that the ultrapower of $M$ by $U$ is elementarily equivalent to $M$, but the fundamental theorem for the ultrapower of $M$ by $U$ fails. We also show that weak fragments of the Axiom of Choice, such as the Countable Choice, do not follow from Łoś’s theorem, even assuming the existence of non-principal ultrafilters.