English

Invariant measures concentrated on countable structures

Logic 2016-06-29 v4 Combinatorics Probability

Abstract

Let L be a countable language. We say that a countable infinite L-structure M admits an invariant measure when there is a probability measure on the space of L-structures with the same underlying set as M that is invariant under permutations of that set, and that assigns measure one to the isomorphism class of M. We show that M admits an invariant measure if and only if it has trivial definable closure, i.e., the pointwise stabilizer in Aut(M) of an arbitrary finite tuple of M fixes no additional points. When M is a Fraisse limit in a relational language, this amounts to requiring that the age of M have strong amalgamation. Our results give rise to new instances of structures that admit invariant measures and structures that do not.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1206.4011,
  title  = {Invariant measures concentrated on countable structures},
  author = {Nathanael Ackerman and Cameron Freer and Rehana Patel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.4011},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

46 pages, 2 figures. Small changes following referee suggestions

R2 v1 2026-06-21T21:21:28.066Z