Answering a question of P. Bankston, we show that the pseudoarc is a co-existentially closed continuum. We also show that $C(X)$, for $X$ a nondegenerate continuum, can never have quantifier elimination, answering a question of the the first and third named authors and Farah and Kirchberg.
We answer two open questions about the model theory of valued differential fields introduced by Scanlon. We show that they eliminate imaginaries in the geometric language introduced by Haskell, Hrushovski and Macpherson and that they have the invariant extension property. These two result follow from an abstract criterion for the density of definable types in enrichments of algebraically closed valued fields. Finally, we show that this theory is metastable.
Makienkos conjecture, a proposed addition to Sullivans dictionary, can be stated as follows: The Julia set of a rational function R has buried points if and only if no component of the Fatou set is completely invariant under the second iterate of R. We prove Makienkos conjecture for rational functions with Julia sets that are decomposable continua. This is a very broad collection of Julia sets; it is not known if there exists a rational functions whose Julia set is an indecomposable continuum.
We investigate the mathematics of a model of the human mind which has been proposed by the psychologist Jens Mammen. Mathematical realizations of this model consist of so-called emph{Mammen spaces}, where a Mammen space is a triple $(U,mathcal S,mathcal C)$, where $U$ is a non-empty set (the universe), $mathcal S$ is a perfect Hausdorff topology on $U$, and $mathcal Csubseteqmathcal P(U)$ together with $mathcal S$ satisfy certain axioms. We refute a conjecture put forward by J. Hoffmann-J{o}rgensen, who conjectured that the existence of a complete Mammen space implies the Axiom of Choice, by showing that in the first Cohen model, in which ZF holds but AC fails, there is a complete Mammen space. We obtain this by proving that in the first Cohen model, every perfect topology can be extended to a maximal perfect topology. On the other hand, we also show that if all sets are Lebesgue measurable, or all sets are Baire measurable, then there are no complete Mammen spaces with a countable universe. Finally, we investigate two new cardinal invariants $mathfrak u_M$ and $mathfrak u_T$ associated with complete Mammen spaces and maximal perfect topologies, and establish some basic inequalities that are provable in ZFC. We show $mathfrak u_M=mathfrak u_T=2^{aleph_0}$ follows from Martins Axiom, and, contrastingly, we show that $aleph_1=mathfrak u_M=mathfrak u_T<2^{aleph_0}=aleph_2$ in the Baumgartner-Laver model.
We give a model-theoretic treatment of the fundamental results of Kechris-Pestov-Todorv{c}evi{c} theory in the more general context of automorphism groups of not necessarily countable structures. One of the main points is a description of the universal ambit as a certain space of types in an expanded language. Using this, we recover various results of Kechris-Pestov-Todorv{c}evi{c}, Moore, Ngyuen Van Th{e}, in the context of automorphism groups of not necessarily countable structures, as well as Zucker.
The Omitting Types Theorem in model theory and the Baire Category Theorem in topology are known to be closely linked. We examine the precise relation between these two theorems. Working with a general notion of logic we show that the classical Omitting Types Theorem holds for a logic if a certain associated topological space has all closed subspaces Baire. We also consider stronger Baire category conditions, and hence stronger Omitting Types Theorems, including a game version. We use examples of spaces previously studied in set-theoretic topology to produce abstract logics showing that the game Omitting Types statement is consistently not equivalent to the classical one.