Model Theory Seminar

May 10
Alexander Van Abel, CUNY
Asymptotic Classes of Finite Structures

A one-dimensional asymptotic class, as introduced by Macpherson and Steinhorn in 2008, is a collection of finite structures whose definable subsets in a single variable grow approximately linearly with respect to the size of the structure, in a definable and well-behaved fashion. The motivating example is the collection of finite fields, as proved by Chatzidakis, van den Dries and Macintyre in 1992. In this talk, we survey Steinhorn and Macpherson's foundational 2008 paper. We give examples and nonexamples of one-dimensional asymptotic classes, as well as more general notions such as N-dimensional and multidimensional classes. We show how infinite ultra-products of one-dimensional asymptotic classes are model-theoretically nice, with particular emphasis on the existence of a well-behaved dimension and measure on definable subsets and the consequences of such.