Counting mod n in pseudofinite fields

DOI10.1007/S11856-021-2279-XMaRDI QIDQ6331168arXivFDO

Authors Will Johnson

Publication date 16 December 2019

Published in arXiv

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/S11856-021-2279-X

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Model theory (03Cxx) Connections between field theory and logic (12Lxx) Arithmetic problems in algebraic geometry; Diophantine geometry (14Gxx)

arXiv classification

math.LO

Abstract: We show that in an ultraproduct of finite fields, the mod-$n$ nonstandard size of definable sets varies definably in families. Moreover, if $K$ is any pseudofinite field, then one can assign "nonstandard sizes mod $n$" to definable sets in $K$. As $n$ varies, these nonstandard sizes assemble into a definable strong Euler characteristic on $K$, taking values in the profinite completion $hatmathbbZ$ of the integers. The strong Euler characteristic is not canonical, but depends on the choice of a nonstandard Frobenius. When $operatornameAbs(K)$ is finite, the Euler characteristic has some funny properties for two choices of the nonstandard Frobenius. Additionally, we show that the theory of finite fields remains decidable when first-order logic is expanded with parity quantifiers. However, the proof depends on a computational algebraic geometry statement whose proof is deferred to a later paper.

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