Related papers: On optimal Scott sentences of finitely generated a…
Every countable structure has a sentence of the infinitary logic $\mathcal{L}_{\omega_1 \omega}$ which characterizes that structure up to isomorphism among countable structures. Such a sentence is called a Scott sentence, and can be thought…
Given a countable mathematical structure, its Scott sentence is a sentence of the infinitary logic $\mathcal{L}_{\omega_1 \omega}$ that characterizes it among all countable structures. We can measure the complexity of a structure by the…
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…
We give effective versions of some results on Scott sentences. We show that if $\mathcal{A}$ has a computable $\Pi_\alpha$ Scott sentence, then the orbits of all tuples are defined by formulas that are computable $\Sigma_\beta$ for some…
We study two complexity notions of groups - a computable Scott sentence and the index set of a group. Finding the exact complexity of one of them usually involves finding the complexity of the other, but this is not the case sometimes. J.…
We prove that every quasi-Hopfian finitely presented structure $A$ has a $d$-$\Sigma_2$ Scott sentence, and that if in addition $A$ is computable and $Aut(A)$ satisfies a natural computable condition, then $A$ has a computable…
We demonstrate that any $\Pi_\alpha$ sentence of the infinitary logic $L_{\omega_1 \omega}$ extending the theory of linear orderings has a model with a $\Pi_{\alpha+4}$ Scott sentence and hence of Scott rank at most $\alpha+3$. In other…
Given a countable scattered linear order $L$ of Hausdorff rank $\alpha < \omega_1$ we show that it has a $d\text{-}\Sigma_{2\alpha+1}$ Scott sentence. Ash calculated the back and forth relations for all countable well-orders. From this…
The Hanf number for a set $S$ of sentences in $L_{\omega_1,\omega}$ (or some other logic) is the least infinite cardinal $\kappa$ such that for all $\varphi\in S$, if $\varphi$ has models in all infinite cardinalities less than $\kappa$,…
For any limit ordinal $\lambda$, we construct a linear order $L_\lambda$ whose Scott complexity is $\Sigma_{\lambda+1}$. This completes the classification of the possible Scott sentence complexities of linear orderings. Previously, there…
The Scott rank of a countable structure is a measure, coming from the proof of Scott's isomorphism theorem, of the complexity of that structure. The Scott spectrum of a theory (by which we mean a sentence of $\mathcal{L}_{\omega_1 \omega}$)…
We give several new examples of computable structures of high Scott rank. For earlier known computable structures of Scott rank $\omega_1^{CK}$, the computable infinitary theory is $\aleph_0$-categorical. Millar and Sacks asked whether this…
We consider model-theoretic properties related to the expressive power of three analogues of $L_{\omega_1, \omega}$ for metric structures. We give an example showing that one of these infinitary logics is strictly more expressive than the…
We prove that if $A$ is a computable Hopfian finitely presented structure, then $A$ has a computable $d$-$\Sigma_2$ Scott sentence if and only if the weak Whitehead problem for $A$ is decidable. We use this to infer that every hyperbolic…
The \emph{index set} of a computable structure $\mathcal{A}$ is the set of indices for computable copies of $\mathcal{A}$. We determine the complexity of the index sets of various mathematically interesting structures, including arbitrary…
Universality has been an important concept in computable structure theory. A class $\mathcal{C}$ of structures is universal if, informally, for any structure, of any kind, there is a structure in $\mathcal{C}$ with the same…
We study possible Scott sentence complexities of linear orderings using two approaches. First, we investigate the effect of the Friedman-Stanley embedding on Scott sentence complexity and show that it only preserves…
Let $L$ be a countable language. We characterize, in terms of definable closure, those countable theories $\Sigma$ of $\mathcal{L}_{\omega_1, \omega}(L)$ for which there exists an $S_\infty$-invariant probability measure on the collection…
Given a Borel class of trees, we show that there is a tree in that class whose Scott sentence is not too much more complicated than the definition of the class. In particular, if the class is definable by a $\Pi_\alpha$ sentence, then there…
We give a notion of Scott rank for separable metric structures based on the definability of the (metric closures of) automorphism orbits in continuous infinitary logic. This is a continuous analogue of work of Montalb\'an for countable…