Locally finite profinite rings

We investigate the structure of locally finite profinite rings. We classify (Jacobson-) semisimple locally finite profinite rings as products of complete matrix rings of bounded cardinality over finite fields, and we prove that the Jacobson radical of any locally finite profinite ring is nil of finite nilexponent. Our results apply to the context of small compact $G$-rings, where we also obtain a description of possible actions of $G$ on the underlying ring.Comment: 17 page

Around Podewski's conjecture

A long-standing conjecture of Podewski states that every minimal field is algebraically closed. It was proved by Wagner for fields of positive characteristic, but it remains wide open in the zero-characteristic case. We reduce Podewski's conjecture to the case of fields having a definable (in the pure field structure), well partial order with an infinite chain, and we conjecture that such fields do not exist. Then we support this conjecture by showing that there is no minimal field interpreting a linear order in a specific way; in our terminology, there is no almost linear, minimal field. On the other hand, we give an example of an almost linear, minimal group $(M,<,+,0)$ of exponent 2, and we show that each almost linear, minimal group is elementary abelian of prime exponent. On the other hand, we give an example of an almost linear, minimal group $(M,<,+,0)$ of exponent 2, and we show that each almost linear, minimal group is torsion.Comment: 16 page

“Birdless Sky”. On one of the topoi in Lager literature (and its fringes)

The aim of the article is to indicate a recurring motif in the writings devoted to Nazi concentration camps. In many of the accounts of male and female internees the camp was described as a place “where birds did not sing”. As a territory over which there spun an empty silent sky. “A Birdless Sky”. The author of the study, utilising various sources, attempted to study the phenomenon from different perspectives. The results of scientific ornithological studies conducted by Günther Niethammer, a scientist and an SS guard at KL Auschwitz proved a rather unexpected point of reference for the voices of the internees. The presented article refers to the increasingly lively contemporary research into the topics of Lager and Holocaust literatures. Ecocriticism and environmentalism have been some of the more significant inspirations of the proposed discussion. By introducing a post-anthropocentric perspective, the author was able to expand the historical field to include non-human beings (animals, plants, landscapes)

Generalized locally compact models for approximate groups

We give a proof of the existence of generalized definable locally compact models for arbitrary approximate subgroups via an application of topological dynamics in model theory. Our construction is simpler and shorter than the original one obtained by Hrushovski in ``Beyond the Lascar group'', and it uses only basic model theory (mostly spaces of types and realizations of types). The main tools are Ellis groups from topological dynamics considered for suitable spaces of types. However, we need to redevelop some basic theory of topological dynamics for suitable ``locally compact flows'' in place of (compact) flows. We also prove that the generalized definable locally compact model which we constructed is universal in an appropriate category. We note that the main result yields structural information on definable generic subsets of definable groups, with a more precise structural result for generics in the universal cover of $\textrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})$

Maximal stable quotients of invariant types in NIP theories

For a NIP theory $T$, a sufficiently saturated model $\mathfrak{C}$ of $T$, and an invariant (over some small subset of $\mathfrak{C}$) global type $p$, we prove that there exists a finest relatively type-definable over a small set of parameters from $\mathfrak{C}$ equivalence relation on the set of realizations of $p$ which has stable quotient. This is a counterpart for equivalence relations of the main result of the paper "On maximal stable quotients of definable groups in NIP theories" by M. Haskel and A. Pillay which shows the existence of maximal stable quotients of type-definable groups in NIP theories. Our proof adapts the ideas of the proof of this result, working with relatively type-definable subsets of the group of automorphisms of the monster model as defined in the paper "On first order amenability" by E. Hrushovski, K. Krupinski, and A. Pillay

G-Compactness and Groups

Lascar described E_KP as a composition of E_L and the topological closure of EL. We generalize this result to some other pairs of equivalence relations. Motivated by an attempt to construct a new example of a non-G-compact theory, we consider the following example. Assume G is a group definable in a structure M. We define a structure M_0 consisting of M and X as two sorts, where X is an affine copy of G and in M_0 we have the structure of M and the action of G on X. We prove that the Lascar group of M_0 is a semi-direct product of the Lascar group of M and G/G_L. We discuss the relationship between G-compactness of M and M_0. This example may yield new examples of non-G-compact theories.Comment: 18 page

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