English

On the First-Order Free Group Factor Alternative

Logic 2025-01-03 v2 Operator Algebras

Abstract

We investigate the problem of elementary equivalence of the free group factors, that is, do all free group factors L(Fn)L(\mathbb{F}_n) share a common first-order theory? We establish a trichotomy of possibilities for their common first-order fundamental group, as well as several possible avenues for establishing a dichotomy in direct analog to the free group factor alternative of Dykema and Radulescu. We also show that the \forall \exists-theories of the interpolated free group factors are increasing, and use this to establish that the dichotomy holds on the level of \forall \exists-theories. We conclude with some observations on related problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2305.08168,
  title  = {On the First-Order Free Group Factor Alternative},
  author = {Isaac Goldbring and Jennifer Pi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.08168},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

23 pages; removed questions that have since been resolved by a paper of the first author

R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:34:03.430Z