Forthcoming events in this series


Thu, 06 Mar 2014
11:00
C5

'Defining p-henselian valuations'

Franziska Yahnke
(Muenster)
Abstract

(Joint work with Jochen Koenigsmann) Admitting a p-henselian
valuation is a weaker assumption on a field than admitting a henselian
valuation. Unlike henselianity, p-henselianity is an elementary property
in the language of rings. We are interested in the question when a field
admits a non-trivial 0-definable p-henselian valuation (in the language
of rings). They often then give rise to 0-definable henselian
valuations. In this talk, we will give a classification of elementary
classes of fields in which the canonical p-henselian valuation is
uniformly 0-definable. This leads to the new phenomenon of p-adically
(pre-)Euclidean fields.

Thu, 27 Feb 2014
11:00
C5

'Counterexamples to a conjecture of Wilkie'

Jonathan Kirby
(UEA)
Abstract

In an o-minimal expansion of the real field, while few holomorphic functions are globally definable, many may be locally definable. Wilkie conjectured that a few basic operations suffice to obtain all of them from the basic functions in the language, and proved the conjecture at generic points. However, it is false in general. Using Ax's theorem, I will explain one counterexample. However, this is not the end of the story.
This is joint work with Jones and Servi.

Thu, 05 Dec 2013
11:00
C5

"Poincare series counting numbers of definable equivalence classes"

Jamshid Derakhshan
(Oxford)
Abstract

Hrushovski-Martin-Rideau have proved rationality of Poincare series counting 
numbers of equivalence classes of a definable equivalence relation on the p-adic field (in connection to a problem on counting representations of groups). For this they have proved 
uniform p-adic elimination of imaginaries. Their work implies that these Poincare series are 
motivic. I will talk about their work.

Thu, 28 Nov 2013
11:00
C5

'Model Theory of Adeles and Adelic Geometry'.

Dr Derakhshan
(Oxford)
Abstract

This is joint work with Angus Macintyre. I will discuss new developments in 
our work on the model theory of adeles concerning model theoretic 
properties of adeles and related issues on adelic geometry and number theory.

Thu, 06 Jun 2013
11:00
SR2

Positivity Problems for Linear Recurrence Sequences

Ben Worrell
(Oxford)
Abstract

 We consider two decision problems for linear recurrence sequences (LRS) 
over the integers, namely the Positivity Problem (are all terms of a given 
LRS positive?) and the Ultimate Positivity Problem (are all but finitely 
many terms of a given LRS positive?). We show decidability of both 
problems for LRS of order 5 or less, and for simple LRS (i.e. whose 
characteristic polynomial has no repeated roots) of order 9 or less. Our 
results rely on on tools from Diophantine approximation, including Baker's 
Theorem on linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers. By way of 
hardness, we show that extending the decidability of either problem to LRS 
of order 6 would entail major breakthroughs on Diophantine approximation 
of transcendental numbers.

This is joint with work with Joel Ouaknine and Matt Daws.

Thu, 23 May 2013
11:00
SR2

'Model completeness and henselianity'

Franziska Jahnke
(U.of Muenster)
Abstract

 A classical question in the model theory of fields is to find out which fields are model complete in the language of rings. It turns out that all well-known examples of model complete fields are quite rigid when it comes to henselianity. We discuss some first results which indicate that in residue characteristic zero, definable henselian valuations prevent model completeness.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013
11:00
SR1

"Small rigid subsets of the reals"

Will Brian
(Oxford)
Abstract

A topological space is called rigid if its only autohomeomorphism is the identity map. Using the Axiom of Choice it is easy to construct rigid subsets of the real line R, but sets constructed in this way always have size continuum. I will explore the question of whether it is possible to have rigid subsets of R that are small, meaning that their cardinality is smaller than that of the continuum. On the one hand, we will see that forcing can be used to produce models of ZFC in which such small rigid sets abound. On the other hand, I will introduce a combinatorial axiom that can be used to show the consistency with ZFC of the statement "CH fails but every rigid subset of R has size continuum". Only a working knowledge of basic set theory (roughly what one might remember from C1.2b) and topology will be assumed.

Thu, 31 Jan 2013
11:00
SR1

"Henselianity as an elementary property".

Franziska Jahnke
(Oxford)
Abstract

 Following Prestel and Ziegler, we will explore what it means for a field
to be t-henselian, i.e. elementarily equivalent (in the language of
rings) to some non-trivially henselian valued field. We will discuss
well-known as well as some new properties of t-henselian fields.

Thu, 25 Oct 2012
11:00
SR1

"Valued fields, integration: future and past directions."

Raf Cluckers
(Lille/Leuven)
Abstract

I'll sketch some context for future and past research around valued fields
and motivic integration, from a model theoretic viewpoint, leaving out technical details. 
The talk will be partly conjectural.

Thu, 11 Oct 2012
11:00
SR1

``Relative CM-triviality and interpretable groups in the bad field''

Frank Wagner
(Lyon)
Abstract

I shall present a geometric property valid in many Hrushovski
amalgamation constructions, relative CM-triviality, and derive
consequences on definable groups: modulo their centre they are already
products of groups interpretable in the initial theories used for the
construction. For the bad field constructed in this way, I shall
moreover classify all interpretable groups up to isogeny.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011
11:00
SR2

"Motivic Integration and counting conjugacy classes in algebraic groups over number fields"

Jamshid Derakhshan
(Oxford)
Abstract

This is joint work with Uri Onn. We use motivic integration to get the growth rate of the sequence consisting of the number of conjugacy classes in quotients of G(O) by congruence subgroups, where $G$ is suitable algebraic group over the rationals and $O$ the ring of integers of a number field.

The proof uses tools from the work of Nir Avni on representation growth of arithmetic groups and results of Cluckers and Loeser on motivic rationality and motivic specialization.

Thu, 10 Mar 2011
11:00
SR2

"Model theoretic properties of S-acts and S-poset".

L.Shaheen
(Sheffield)
Abstract

An S-act over a monoid S is a representation of a monoid by tranformations of a set, analogous to the notion of a G-act over a group G being a representation of G by bijections of a set. An S-poset is the corresponding notion for an ordered monoid S.

Thu, 11 Nov 2010
11:00
SR2

"Conjugacy classes in quotients of algebraic groups, model theory, and a transfer principle".

Jamshid Derakhshan
Abstract

Abstract. In this talk, I will present joint work with Uri Onn, Mark Berman, and Pirita Paajanen.

Let G be a linear algebraic group defined over the integers. Let O be a compact discrete valuation ring with a finite residue field of cardinality q and characteristic p. The group

G(O) has a filtration by congruence subgroups

G_m(O) (which is by definition the kernel of reduction map modulo P^m where P is the maximal ideal of O).

Let c_m=c_m(G(O))  denote the number of conjugacy classes in the finite quotient group G(O)/G_m(O) (which is called the mth congruence quotient of G(O)).  The conjugacy class zeta function of

G(O) is defined to be the Dirichlet series Z_{G(O)}(s)=\sum_{m=0,1,...} c_m q^_{-ms}, where s is a complex number with Re(s)>0. This zeta function was defined by du Sautoy when G is a p-adic analytic group and O=Z_p, the ring of p-adic integers, and he proved that in this case it is a rational function in p^{-s}.  We consider the question of dependence of this zeta function on p and more generally on the ring O.

We prove that for certain algebraic groups, for all compact discrete valuation rings with finite residue field of cardinality q and sufficiently large residue characteristic p, the conjugacy class zeta function is a rational function in q^{-s} which depends only on q and not on the structure of the ring. Note that this applies also to positive characteristic local fields.

 

A key in the proof is a transfer principle. Let \psi(x) and f(x) be resp.

definable sets and functions in Denef-Pas language.

For a local field K, consider the local integral Z(K,s)=\int_\psi(K)

|f(x)|^s dx, where | | is norm on K and dx normalized absolute value

giving the integers O of K volume 1. Then there is some constant

c=c(f,\psi) such that  for all local fields K of residue characteristic larger than c and residue field of cardinality q, the integral Z(K,s) gives the same rational function in q^{-s} and takes the same value as a complex function of s.

 

This transfer principle is more general than the specialization to local fields of the special case when there is no additive characters of the motivic transfer principle of Cluckers and Loeser since their result is the case when the integral is zero.

 

The conjugacy class zeta function is related to the representation zeta function which counts number of irreducible complex representations in each degree (provided there are finitely many or finitely many natural classes) as was shown in the work of Lubotzky and Larsen, and gives information on analytic properties of latter zeta function.