January 10
Arseniy Sheydvasser,
Technion
Are higher-rank arithmetic groups uniformly bi-interpretable with arithmetic?
Given a model M of an axiomatic theory A, and a model N of an axiomatic theory B, we say that they are bi-interpretable if, roughly speaking, they have the same definable sets: that is, there are definable maps that move definable sets in one to definable sets in the other. One interesting question we might ask, given an axiomatic theory A, is which of its models are bi-interpretable with the integers (seen as a model of the first-order theory of rings)? As self-interpretations of the integers are particularly simple, this gives a lot of information about properties of the model. In this talk, we will consider arithmetic groups like SL(n, Z) and discuss recent progress in understanding when such groups are bi-interpretable with arithmetic and what consequences this has when it occurs.