English

Counting mod n in pseudofinite fields

Logic 2019-12-17 v1

Abstract

We show that in an ultraproduct of finite fields, the mod-nn nonstandard size of definable sets varies definably in families. Moreover, if KK is any pseudofinite field, then one can assign "nonstandard sizes mod nn" to definable sets in KK. As nn varies, these nonstandard sizes assemble into a definable strong Euler characteristic on KK, taking values in the profinite completion Z^\hat{\mathbb{Z}} of the integers. The strong Euler characteristic is not canonical, but depends on the choice of a nonstandard Frobenius. When Abs(K)\operatorname{Abs}(K) is finite, the Euler characteristic has some funny properties for two choices of the nonstandard Frobenius. Additionally, we show that the theory of finite fields remains decidable when first-order logic is expanded with parity quantifiers. However, the proof depends on a computational algebraic geometry statement whose proof is deferred to a later paper.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1912.07223,
  title  = {Counting mod n in pseudofinite fields},
  author = {Will Johnson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.07223},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

Expanded version of thesis chapter; 45 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:46:45.172Z