English

Defining the integers in large rings of number fields using one universal quantifier

Logic 2008-02-14 v2 Number Theory

Abstract

Julia Robinson has given a first-order definition of the rational integers Z\mathbb Z in the rational numbers Q\mathbb Q by a formula ()(F=0)(\forall \exists \forall \exists)(F=0) where the \forall-quantifiers run over a total of 8 variables, and where F is a polynomial. We show that for a large class of number fields, not including Q\mathbb Q, for every ϵ>0\epsilon>0, there exists a set of primes S\cal S of natural density exceeding 1ϵ1-\epsilon, such that Z\mathbb Z can be defined as a subset of the ``large'' subring {xK:\ordpx>0,p∉S}\{x \in K : \ord_{\mathfrak p}x >0, \forall \mathfrak p \not \in \cal S \} of K by a formula of the form ()(F=0)(\exists \forall \exists)(F=0) where there is only one \forall-quantifier, and where F is a polynomial.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.3075,
  title  = {Defining the integers in large rings of number fields using one universal quantifier},
  author = {Gunther Cornelissen and Alexandra Shlapentokh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.3075},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

Substantial changes in Theorems 1 and 2 and their proofs. Two new theorems (3 and 4)

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:09:47.861Z