No Arabic abstract
This is a largely expository paper about how groups arise or are of interest in model theory. Included are the following topics: classifying groups definable in specific structures or theories and the relation to algebraic groups, groups definable in stable, simple and NIP theories, definable compactifications of groups, definable Galois theory (including differential Galois theory), connections with topological dynamics, model theory of the free group.
We initiate the study of p-adic algebraic groups G from the stability-theoretic and definable topological-dynamical points of view, that is, we consider invariants of the action of G on its space of types over Q_p in the language of fields. We consider the additive and multiplicative groups of Q_p and Z_p, the group of upper triangular invertible 2times 2 matrices, SL(2,Z_p), and, our main focus, SL(2,Q_p). In all cases we identify f-generic types (when they exist), minimal subflows, and idempotents. Among the main results is that the ``Ellis group of SL(2,Q_p)$ is the profinite completion of Z, yielding a counterexample to Newelskis conjecture with new features: G = G^{00} = G^{000} but the Ellis group is infinite. A final section deals with the action of SL(2,Q_p) on the type-space of the projective line over Q_p.
In 2003, Kechris, Pestov and Todorcevic showed that the structure of certain separable metric spaces - called ultrahomogeneous - is closely related to the combinatorial behavior of the class of their finite metric spaces. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the different aspects of this connection.
We use hyperbolic towers to answer some model theoretic questions around the generic type in the theory of free groups. We show that all the finitely generated models of this theory realize the generic type $p_0$, but that there is a finitely generated model which omits $p_0^{(2)}$. We exhibit a finitely generated model in which there are two maximal independent sets of realizations of the generic type which have different cardinalities. We also show that a free product of homogeneous groups is not necessarily homogeneous.
We prove several theorems relating amenability of groups in various categories (discrete, definable, topological, automorphism group) to model-theoretic invariants (quotients by connected components, Lascar Galois group, G-compactness, ...). For example, if $M$ is a countable, $omega$-categorical structure and $Aut(M)$ is amenable, as a topological group, then the Lascar Galois group $Gal_{L}(T)$ of the theory $T$ of $M$ is compact, Hausdorff (also over any finite set of parameters), that is $T$ is G-compact. An essentially special case is that if $Aut(M)$ is extremely amenable, then $Gal_{L}(T)$ is trivial, so, by a theorem of Lascar, the theory $T$ can be recovered from its category $Mod(T)$ of models. On the side of definable groups, we prove for example that if $G$ is definable in a model $M$, and $G$ is definably amenable, then the connected components ${G^{*}}^{00}_{M}$ and ${G^{*}}^{000}_{M}$ coincide, answering positively a question from an earlier paper of the authors. We also take the opportunity to further develop the model-theoretic approach to topological dynamics, obtaining for example some new invariants for topological groups, as well as allowing a uniform approach to the theorems above and the various categories.
We survey discrete and continuous model-theoretic notions which have important connections to general topology. We present a self-contained exposition of several interactions between continuous logic and $C_p$-theory which have applications to a classification problem involving Banach spaces not including $c_0$ or $l^p$, following recent results obtained by P. Casazza and J. Iovino for compact continuous logics. Using $C_p$-theoretic results involving Grothendieck spaces and double limit conditions, we extend their results to a broader family of logics, namely those with a first countable weakly Grothendieck space of types. We pose $C_p$-theoretic problems which have model-theoretic implications.