On Preservation Theorems for Two-Variable Logic

We show that the existential preservation theorem fails for two-variable first-order logic FO². It is known that for all k ≥ 3, FO^k 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.