Related papers: The free group does not have the finite cover prop…

We show that the theory of the free group -- and more generally the theory of any torsion-free hyperbolic group -- is $n$-ample for any $n\geq 1$. We give also an explicit description of the imaginary algebraic closure in free groups.

We prove that the common theory of nonabelian free groups has the dimensional order property, or DOP, implying, for example, that there is no reasonable structure theorem for $\aleph_1$-saturated models of this theory.

I prove that the generic type of the free nonabelian group has infinite weight (strengthening non superstability of the free group).

We prove that no infinite field is interpretable in the first-order theory of nonabelian free groups. We also obtain a characterization of Abelian groups interpretable in this theory.

We show that any nonabelian free group $F$ of finite rank is homogeneous; that is for any tuples $\bar a$, $\bar b \in F^n$, having the same complete $n$-type, there exists an automorphism of $F$ which sends $\bar a$ to $\bar b$. We further…

We show that there exist non-unitarizable groups without non-abelian free subgroups. Both torsion and torsion free examples are constructed. As a by-product, we show that there exist finitely generated torsion groups with non-vanishing…

We show that any non abelian free group $\F$ is strongly $\aleph_0$-homogeneous, i.e. that finite tuples of elements which satisfy the same first-order properties are in the same orbit under $\Aut(\F)$. We give a characterization of…

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 in general for a given group the structure of a maximal hyperbolic tower over a free group is not canonical: We construct examples of groups having hyperbolic tower structures over free subgroups which have arbitrarily large…

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 prove that the abstract commensurator of a nonabelian free group, an infinite surface group, or more generally of a group that splits appropriately over a cyclic subgroup, is not finitely generated. This applies in particular to all…

We prove that nonvanishing of the first Novikov-Betti number implies that the fundamental group contains a nonabelian free subgroup.

We show that there is a class of finite groups, the so-called perfect groups, which cannot exhibit anomalies. This implies that all non-Abelian finite simple groups are anomaly-free. On the other hand, non-perfect groups generically suffer…

We prove that the additive group of the rationals does not have an automatic presentation. The proof also applies to certain other abelian groups, for example, torsion-free groups that are $p$-divisible for infinitely many primes $p$, or…

We introduce a combinatorial criterion for verifying whether a formula is not the conjunction of an equation and a co-equation. Using this, we give a proof for the nonequationality of the free group. Furthermore, we generalize the latter…

We prove that existentially closed $CSA$-groups have the independence property. This is done by showing that there exist words having the independence property relatively to the class of torsion-free hyperbolic groups.

We give an infinite family of torsion-free groups that do not satisfy the unique product property. For these examples, we also show that each group contains arbitrarily large sets whose square has no uniquely represented element.

Let $F$ be either a free nilpotent group of a given class and of finite rank or a free solvable group of a certain derived length and of finite rank. We show precisely which ones have the $R_{\infty}$ property. Finally, we also show that…

Free groups are known to be homogeneous, meaning that finite tuples of elements which satisfy the same first-order properties are in the same orbit under the action of the automorphism group. We show that virtually free groups have a…

We construct continuum many infinite, simple, characteristic quotients of non-abelian free groups, answering a 1978 question of James Wiegold. The method is very flexible, allowing to impose certain properties on the quotients, to…