On maximal subgroups of the automorphism group of a countable recursively saturated model of PA (Q1314639)

The study of the automorphism group \(\Aut(M)\) of a countable recursively saturated model \(M\) of PA has recently provided model theory with an attractive collection of results, and a rich set of open questions. The initial results were independently obtained in the early 1980's by Kotlarski and Smoryński but the key paper in the area is the paper ``Automorphisms of recursively saturated models of arithmetic'', by \textit{R. Kaye}, \textit{R. Kossak} and \textit{H. Kotlarski} [Ann. Pure Appl. Logic 55, No. 1, 67-99 (1991; Zbl 0748.03023)]. The paper under review answers some of the questions left open in the above paper, and contains many interesting new results. Perhaps the most important result of the paper is the following: In the light of the observations that if the type of an element \(m\) in \(M\) is ``2-indiscernible'' then the pointwise stabilizer of \(m\) is a ``strongly maximal'' subgroup of \(\Aut(M)\), it was asked whether these are the only maximal stabilizers of elements of \(M\). The authors manage to answer this question by first establishing an elegant equivalence: The stabilizer of an element \(m\) of \(M\) is a maximal subgroup of \(\Aut(M)\) iff the type of \(m\) is selective. Then they show that in every recursively saturated model of PA there is an element whose type is selective but not 2-indiscernible. One of the surprising facts established along the way is a reformulation of 2-indiscernibility. A type is 2-indiscernible iff it is a minimal type (in the sense of Gaifman).