Model theory of finite and pseudofinite groups

This is a survey, intended both for group theorists and model theorists, concerning the structure of pseudofinite groups, that is, infinite models of the first-order theory of finite groups. The focus is on concepts from stability theory and generalisations in the context of pseudofinite groups, and on the information this might provide for finite group theory

Amenability, connected components, and definable actions

We study amenability of definable groups and topological groups, and prove various results, briefly described below. Among our main technical tools, of interest in its own right, is an elaboration on and strengthening of the Massicot-Wagner version of the stabilizer theorem, and also some results about measures and measure-like functions (which we call means and pre-means). As an application we show that if $G$ is an amenable topological group, then the Bohr compactification of $G$ coincides with a certain ``weak Bohr compactification'' introduced in [24]. In other words, the conclusion says that certain connected components of $G$ coincide: $G^{00}_{topo} = G^{000}_{topo}$. We also prove wide generalizations of this result, implying in particular its extension to a ``definable-topological'' context, confirming the main conjectures from [24]. We also introduce $\bigvee$-definable group topologies on a given $\emptyset$-definable group $G$ (including group topologies induced by type-definable subgroups as well as uniformly definable group topologies), and prove that the existence of a mean on the lattice of closed, type-definable subsets of $G$ implies (under some assumption) that $cl(G^{00}_M) = cl(G^{000}_M)$ for any model $M$. Thirdly, we give an example of a $\emptyset$-definable approximate subgroup $X$ in a saturated extension of the group $\mathbb{F}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}$ in a suitable language (where $\mathbb{F}_2$ is the free group in 2-generators) for which the $\bigvee$-definable group $H:=\langle X \rangle$ contains no type-definable subgroup of bounded index. This refutes a conjecture by Wagner and shows that the Massicot-Wagner approach to prove that a locally compact (and in consequence also Lie) ``model'' exists for each approximate subgroup does not work in general (they proved in [29] that it works for definably amenable approximate subgroups).Comment: Version 3 contains the material in Sections 2, 3, and 5 of version 1. Following the advice of editors and referees we have divided version 1 into two papers, version 3 being the first. The second paper is entitled "On first order amenability

Theories without the tree property of the second kind

We initiate a systematic study of the class of theories without the tree property of the second kind - NTP2. Most importantly, we show: the burden is "sub-multiplicative" in arbitrary theories (in particular, if a theory has TP2 then there is a formula with a single variable witnessing this); NTP2 is equivalent to the generalized Kim's lemma and to the boundedness of ist-weight; the dp-rank of a type in an arbitrary theory is witnessed by mutually indiscernible sequences of realizations of the type, after adding some parameters - so the dp-rank of a 1-type in any theory is always witnessed by sequences of singletons; in NTP2 theories, simple types are co-simple, characterized by the co-independence theorem, and forking between the realizations of a simple type and arbitrary elements satisfies full symmetry; a Henselian valued field of characteristic (0,0) is NTP2 (strong, of finite burden) if and only if the residue field is NTP2 (the residue field and the value group are strong, of finite burden respectively), so in particular any ultraproduct of p-adics is NTP2; adding a generic predicate to a geometric NTP2 theory preserves NTP2.Comment: 35 pages; v.3: a discussion and a Conjecture 2.7 on the sub-additivity of burden had been added; Section 3.1 on the SOPn hierarchy restricted to NTP2 theories had been added; Problem 7.13 had been updated; numbering of theorems had been changed and some minor typos were fixed; Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, accepte

Model Theory: groups, geometry, and combinatorics

This conference was about recent interactions of model theory with combinatorics, geometric group theory and the theory of valued fields, and the underlying pure model-theoretic developments. Its aim was to report on recent results in the area, and to foster communication between the different communities

Finding groups in Zariski-like structures

We study quasiminimal classes, i.e. abstract elementary classes (AECs) that arise from a quasiminimal pregeometry structure. For these classes, we develop an independence notion, and in particular, a theory of independence in M^{eq}. We then generalize Hrushovski's Group Configuration Theorem to our setting. In an attempt to generalize Zariski geometries to the context of quasiminimal classes, we give the axiomatization for Zariski-like structures, and as an application of our group configuration theorem, show that groups can be found in them assuming that the pregeometry obtained from the bounded closure operator is non-trivial. Finally, we study the cover of the multiplicative group of an algebraically closed field and show that it provides an example of a Zariski-like structure