Countable Short Recursively Saturated Models of Arithmetic

Short recursively saturated models of arithmetic are exactly the elementary initial segments of recursively saturated models of arithmetic. Since any countable recursively saturated model of arithmetic has continuum many elementary initial segments which are already recursively saturated, we turn our attention to the (countably many) initial segments which are not recursively saturated. We first look at properties of countable short recursively saturated models of arithmetic and show that although these models cannot be cofinally resplendent (an expandability property slightly weaker than resplendency), these models have non-definable expansions which are still short recursively saturated

Logic and C∗\mathrm{C}^*-algebras: set theoretical dichotomies in the theory of continuous quotients

Given a nonunital $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebra $A$ one constructs its corona algebra $\mathcal M(A)/A$. This is the noncommutative analog of the \v{C}ech-Stone remainder of a topological space. We analyze the two faces of these algebras: the first one is given assuming CH, and the other one arises when Forcing Axioms are assumed. In their first face, corona $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebras have a large group of automorphisms that includes nondefinable ones. The second face is the Forcing Axiom one; here the automorphism group of a corona $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebra is as rigid as possible, including only definable elementsComment: This is the author's Ph.D. thesis, defended in April 2017 at York University, Toront

Curious satisfaction classes

We present two new constructions of satisfaction/truth classes over models of PA (Peano Arithmetic) that provide a foil to the fact that the existence of a disjunctively correct full truth class over a model M of PA implies that Con(PA) holds in M.Comment: 12 page

Introduction to Sofic and Hyperlinear groups and Connes' embedding conjecture

Sofic and hyperlinear groups are the countable discrete groups that can be approximated in a suitable sense by finite symmetric groups and groups of unitary matrices. These notions turned out to be very deep and fruitful, and stimulated in the last 15 years an impressive amount of research touching several seemingly distant areas of mathematics including geometric group theory, operator algebras, dynamical systems, graph theory, and more recently even quantum information theory. Several longstanding conjectures that are still open for arbitrary groups were settled in the case of sofic or hyperlinear groups. These achievements aroused the interest of an increasing number of researchers into some fundamental questions about the nature of these approximation properties. Many of such problems are to this day still open such as, outstandingly: Is there any countable discrete group that is not sofic or hyperlinear? A similar pattern can be found in the study of II_1 factors. In this case the famous conjecture due to Connes (commonly known as the Connes embedding conjecture) that any II_1 factor can be approximated in a suitable sense by matrix algebras inspired several breakthroughs in the understanding of II_1 factors, and stands out today as one of the major open problems in the field. The aim of these notes is to present in a uniform and accessible way some cornerstone results in the study of sofic and hyperlinear groups and the Connes embedding conjecture. The presentation is nonetheless self contained and accessible to any student or researcher with a graduate level mathematical background. An appendix by V. Pestov provides a pedagogically new introduction to the concepts of ultrafilters, ultralimits, and ultraproducts for those mathematicians who are not familiar with them, and aiming to make these concepts appear very natural.Comment: 157 pages, with an appendix by Vladimir Pesto