English

Scott sentences for certain groups

Logic 2017-07-10 v2

Abstract

We give Scott sentences for certain computable groups, and we use index set calculations as a way of checking that our Scott sentences are as simple as possible. We consider finitely generated groups and torsion-free abelian groups of finite rank. For both kinds of groups, the computable ones all have computable Σ3\Sigma_3 Scott sentences. Sometimes we can do better. In fact, the computable finitely generated groups that we have studied all have Scott sentences that are "computable dd-Σ2\Sigma_2" (the conjunction of a computable Σ2\Sigma_2 sentence and a computable Π2\Pi_2 sentence). This was already shown for the finitely generated free groups. Here we show it for all finitely generated abelian groups, and for the infinite dihedral group. Among the computable torsion-free abelian groups of finite rank, we focus on those of rank 11. These are exactly the additive subgroups of Q\mathbb{Q}. We show that for some of these groups, the computable Σ3\Sigma_3 Scott sentence is best possible, while for others, there is a computable dd-Σ2\Sigma_2 Scott sentence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.06353,
  title  = {Scott sentences for certain groups},
  author = {Julia Knight and Vikram Saraph},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.06353},
  year   = {2017}
}

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15 pages