Related papers: The first-order theory of $\ell$-permutation group…
We propose an interpretation for the meets and joins in the lattice of experimental propositions of a physical theory, answering a question of Birkhoff and von Neumann in [1]. When the lattice is atomistic, it is isomorphic to the lattice…
We introduce first order alternating automata, a generalization of boolean alternating automata, in which transition rules are described by multisorted first order formulae, with states and internal variables given by uninterpreted…
In this paper, we study prime order automorphisms of generalized quadrangles. We show that, if $\mathcal{Q}$ is a thick generalized quadrangle of order $(s,t)$, where $s > t$ and $s+1$ is prime, and $\mathcal{Q}$ has an automorphism of…
Let $X$ be a nonempty set and let $T(X)$ be the full transformation semigroup on $X$. The main objective of this paper is to study the subsemigroup $\overline{\Omega}(X, Y)$ of $T(X)$ defined by \[\overline{\Omega}(X, Y) = \{f\in T(X)\colon…
A short proof of a theorem of M.H. Albert, and its application to lattices.
The transitivity degree of a group $G$ is the supremum of all integers $k$ such that $G$ admits a faithful $k$-transitive action. Few obstructions are known to impose an upper bound on the transitivity degree for infinite groups. The…
Ostrom and Wagner (1959) proved that if the automorphism group $G$ of a finite projective plane $\pi$ acts $2$-transitively on the points of $\pi$, then $\pi$ is isomorphic to the Desarguesian projective plane and $G$ is isomorphic to…
We identify a number of decidable and undecidable fragments of first-order concatenation theory. We also give a purely universal axiomatization which is complete for the fragments we identify. Furthermore, we prove some normal-form results.
Let $\Gamma$ be a connected $G$-vertex-transitive graph, let $v$ be a vertex of $\Gamma$ and let $L=G_v^{\Gamma(v)}$ be the permutation group induced by the action of the vertex-stabiliser $G_v$ on the neighbourhood $\Gamma(v)$. Then…
Our "long term and large scale" aim is to characterize the first order theories T (at least the countable ones) such that: for every ordinal alpha there lambda,M_1,M_2 such that M_1,M_2 are non-isomorphic models of T of cardinality lambda…
Many integer sequences arise as numbers of $G$-orbits on $\binom{X}{n}$ as $n$ varies, for a permutation group $G\subseteq \operatorname{Sym}(X)$. For finite $X$, Stanley proved that these finite sequences increase towards the middle using…
In this note, we present a characterization of sets definable in Skolem arithmetic, i.e., the first-order theory of natural numbers with multiplication. This characterization allows us to prove the decidability of the theory. The idea is…
For each finite classical group $G$, we classify the subgroups of $G$ which act transitively on a $G$-invariant set of subspaces of the natural module, where the subspaces are either totally isotropic or nondegenerate. Our proof uses the…
In this article I investigate the phenomenon of minimum models of second-order set theories, focusing on Kelley--Morse set theory $\mathsf{KM}$, G\"odel--Bernays set theory $\mathsf{GB}$, and $\mathsf{GB}$ augmented with the principle of…
We study the first order theory of structures over graphs i.e. structures of the form ($\mathcal{G},\tau$) where $\mathcal{G}$ is the set of all (isomorphism types of) finite undirected graphs and $\tau$ some vocabulary. We define the…
In the recent years, the generalization of the Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem to permutation groups has been of much interest. A transitive group is said to satisfy the EKR-module property if the characteristic vector of every maximum…
The prime coprime graph $\Theta(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is the graph whose vertex set is $G$ and any two distinct vertices are adjacent if the greatest common divisor of their orders is either $1$ or a prime. In this paper, we investigate…
For commutative rings, we introduce the notion of a {\em universal grading}, which can be viewed as the "largest possible grading". While not every commutative ring (or order) has a universal grading, we prove that every {\em reduced order}…
For odd primes we prove some structure theorems for finite $p$-groups $G$, such that $G''\neq 1$ and $|G'/G''|=p^3$. Building on results of Blackburn and Hall, it is shown that $\lcs G3$ is a maximal subgroup of $G'$, the group $G$ has a…
This work can be thought as a contribution to the model theory of group extensions. We study the groups G which are interpretable in the disjoint union of two structures (seen as a two-sorted structure). We show that if one of the two…