We show that every definable subset of an uncountably categorical pseudofinite structure has pseudofinite cardinality which is polynomial (over the rationals) in the size of any strongly minimal subset, with the degree of the polynomial equal to the Morley rank of the subset. From this fact, we show that classes of finite structures whose ultraproducts all satisfy the same uncountably categorical theory are polynomial R-mecs as well as N-dimensional asymptotic classes, where N is the Morley rank of the theory.

Due to Gödel’s incompleteness results, the categoricity of a sufficiently rich mathematical theory and the semantic completeness of its underlying logic are two mutually exclusive ideals. For first- and second-order logics we obtain one of them with the cost of losing the other. In addition, in both these logics the rules of deduction for their quantifiers are non-categorical. In this paper I examine two recent arguments—Warren [43] and Murzi and Topey [30]—for the idea that the natural deduction rules for the first-order universal quantifier are categorical, i.e., they uniquely determine its semantic intended meaning. Both of them make use of McGee’s open-endedness requirement and the second one uses in addition Garson’s [19] local models for defining the validity of these rules. I argue that the success of both these arguments is relative to their semantic or infinitary assumptions, which could be easily discharged if the introduction rule for the universal quantifier is taken to be an infinitary rule, i.e., non-compact. Consequently, I reconsider the use of the $\omega $-rule and I show that the addition of the $\omega $-rule to the standard formalizations of first-order logic is categorical. In addition, I argue that the open-endedness requirement does not make the first-order Peano Arithmetic categorical and I advance an argument for its categoricity based on the inferential conservativity requirement.

A structure ${\mathbb Y}$ of a relational language L is called almost chainable iff there are a finite set $F \subset Y$ and a linear order $\,<$ on the set $Y\setminus F$ such that for each partial automorphism $\varphi $ (i.e., local automorphism, in Fraïssé’s terminology) of the linear order $\langle Y\setminus F, <\rangle $ the mapping $\mathop {\mathrm {id}}\nolimits _F \cup \varphi $ is a partial automorphism of ${\mathbb Y}$ . By theorems of Fraïssé and Pouzet, an infinite structure ${\mathbb Y}$ is almost chainable iff the profile of ${\mathbb Y}$ is bounded; namely, iff there is a positive integer m such that ${\mathbb Y}$ has $\leq m$ non-isomorphic substructures of size n, for each positive integer n. A complete first order L-theory ${\mathcal T}$ having infinite models is called almost chainable iff all models of ${\mathcal T}$ are almost chainable and it is shown that the last condition is equivalent to the existence of one countable almost chainable model of ${\mathcal T}$ . In addition, it is proved that an almost chainable theory has either one or continuum many non-isomorphic countable models and, thus, the Vaught conjecture is confirmed for almost chainable theories.

We give an example of two ordered structures $\mathcal {M},\mathcal {N}$ in the same language $\mathcal {L}$ with the same universe, the same order and admitting the same one-variable definable subsets such that $\mathcal {M}$ is a model of the common theory of o-minimal $\mathcal {L}$ -structures and $\mathcal {N}$ admits a definable, closed, bounded, and discrete subset and a definable injective self-mapping of that subset which is not surjective. This answers negatively two question by Schoutens; the first being whether there is an axiomatization of the common theory of o-minimal structures in a given language by conditions on one-variable definable sets alone. The second being whether definable completeness and type completeness imply the pigeonhole principle. It also partially answers a question by Fornasiero asking whether definable completeness of an expansion of a real closed field implies the pigeonhole principle.

We show that if $(M,{ \in _1},{ \in _2})$ satisfies the first-order Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms of set theory when the membership relation is ${ \in _1}$ and also when the membership relation is ${ \in _2}$, and in both cases the formulas are allowed to contain both ${ \in _1}$ and ${ \in _2}$, then $\left( {M, \in _1 } \right) \cong \left( {M, \in _2 } \right)$, and the isomorphism is definable in $(M,{ \in _1},{ \in _2})$. This extends Zermelo’s 1930 theorem in [6].

We say a structure ${\cal M}$ in a first-order language ${\cal L}$ is indivisible if for every coloring of its universe in two colors, there is a monochromatic substructure ${\cal M}\prime \subseteq {\cal M}$ such that ${\cal M}\prime \cong {\cal M}$. Additionally, we say that ${\cal M}$ is symmetrically indivisible if ${\cal M}\prime$ can be chosen to be symmetrically embedded in ${\cal M}$ (that is, every automorphism of ${\cal M}\prime$ can be extended to an automorphism of ${\cal M}$). Similarly, we say that ${\cal M}$ is elementarily indivisible if ${\cal M}\prime$ can be chosen to be an elementary substructure. We define new products of structures in a relational language. We use these products to give recipes for construction of elementarily indivisible structures which are not transitive and elementarily indivisible structures which are not symmetrically indivisible, answering two questions presented by A. Hasson, M. Kojman, and A. Onshuus.

We study relationships between certain algebraic properties of groups and rings definable in a first order structure or *-closed in a compact G-space. As a consequence, we obtain a few structural results about ω-categorical rings as well as about small, nm-stable compact G-rings, and we also obtain surprising relationships between some conjectures concerning small profinite groups.

We study the existence of some covers and envelopes in the chain complex category of R-modules. Let (𝒜,ℬ) be a cotorsion pair in R-Mod and let ℰ𝒜 stand for the class of all exact complexes with each term in 𝒜. We prove that (ℰ𝒜,ℰ𝒜⊥) is a perfect cotorsion pair whenever 𝒜 is closed under pure submodules, cokernels of pure monomorphisms and direct limits and so every complex has an ℰ𝒜-cover. As an application we show that every complex of R-modules over a right coherent ring R has an exact Gorenstein flat cover. In addition, the existence of -covers and -envelopes of special complexes is considered where and denote the classes of all complexes with each term in 𝒜 and ℬ, respectively.

We construct a bad field in characteristic zero. That is, we construct an algebraically closed field which carries a notion of dimension analogous to Zariski-dimension, with an infinite proper multiplicative subgroup of dimension one, and such that the field itself has dimension two. This answers a longstanding open question by Zilber.

We consider the model theory of the real and complex fields with a multiplicative group having the Mann property. Among these groups are the finitely generated multiplicative groups in these fields. As a by-product we obtain some results on groups with the Mann property in rings of Witt vectors and in fields of positive characteristic.k