Related papers: Decidability of the Elementary Theory of a Torsion…

It was proved by Sela and by the authors that every formula in the theory of a free group $F$ is equivalent to a boolean combination of $\exists\forall$-formulas. We also proved that the elementary theory of a free group is decidable (there…

We prove the decidability of the elementary theory of a free group.

We consider embeddings in a torsion-free hyperbolic group which are elementary in the sense of first-order logic. We give a description of these embeddings in terms of Sela's hyperbolic towers. We deduce as a corollary that subgroups…

In 2006 Z. Sela and independently O. Kharlampovich and A. Myasnikov gave a solution to the Tarski problems by showing that two non-abelian free groups have the same elementary theory. Subsequently Z. Sela generalized the techniques used in…

This paper is devoted to the first-order theory of torsion-free hyperbolic groups. One of its purposes is to review some results and to provide precise and correct statements and definitions, as well as some proofs and new results. A key…

In a remarkable series of papers, Zlil Sela classified the first-order theories of free groups and torsion-free hyperbolic groups using geometric structures he called towers. It was later proved by Chlo\'e Perin that if $H$ is an…

We show that the universal theory of torsion groups is strongly contained in the universal theory of finite groups. This answers a question of Dyson. We also prove that the universal theory of some natural classes of torsion groups is…

We give an example of a definable set in every free or torsion-free (non-elementary) hyperbolic group that is not in the Boolean algebra of equational sets. Hence, the theories of free and torsion-free (non-elementary) hyperbolic groups are…

In a series of papers starting in [Sel01] and culminating in [Sel07], Z. Sela proved that free groups, and more generally torsion-free hyperbolic groups, have a stable first-order theory. The question of the stability of the free product of…

We study to what extent torsion-free (Gromov)-hyperbolic groups are elementarily equivalent to their finite index subgroups. In particular, we prove that a hyperbolic limit group either is a free product of cyclic groups and surface groups,…

We prove that the generic type of a non-cyclic torsion-free hyperbolic group G is foreign to any interpretable abelian group, hence also to any interpretable field. This result depends, among other things, on the definable simplicity of a…

We begin the investigation of Gamma-limit groups, where Gamma is a torsion-free group which is hyperbolic relative to a collection of free abelian subgroups. Using the results of Drutu and Sapir, we adapt the results from math.GR/0404440 to…

We generalise Merzlyakov's theorem about the first-order theory of non-abelian free groups to all acylindrically hyperbolic groups. As a corollary, we deduce that if $G$ is an acylindrically hyperbolic group and $E(G)$ denotes the unique…

In this version small mistakes are corrected and the exposition is changed as suggested by the referee (to appear in Canadian Journal of Mathematics). The first main result of the paper is a criterion for a partially commutative group $\GG$…

We first prove that the Whitehead group of a torsion-free virtually solvable linear group vanishes. Next we make a reduction of the fibered isomorphism conjecture from virtually solvable groups to a class of virtually solvable Q-linear…

We study algebraic closure and its relation with definable closure in free groups and more generally in torsion-free hyperbolic groups. Given a torsion-free hyperbolic group G and a nonabelian subgroup A of G, we describe G as a…

We prove that every finitely generated group $G$ discriminated by a locally quasi-convex torsion-free hyperbolic group $\Gamma$ is effectively coherent: that is, presentations for finitely generated subgroups can be computed from the…

Elementarily free groups are the finitely generated groups with the same elementary theory as free groups. We prove that elementarily free groups are subgroup separable, answering a question of Zlil Sela.

We construct finitely generated torsion-free solvable groups $G$ that have infinite rank, but such that all finitely generated torsion-free metabelian subquotients of $G$ are virtually abelian. In particular all finitely generated…

We show that if $G$ is a non-elementary torsion-free word hyperbolic group then there exists another word hyperbolic group $G^*$, such that $G$ is a subgroup of $G^*$ but $G$ is not quasiconvex in $G^*$.