Elementary equivalence of infinite-dimensional classical groups (Q1591375)

In this paper the following question posed by Felgner is considered. Given vector spaces \(V_1,V_2\) of dimension \(\kappa_1,\kappa_2\) over infinite-dimensional skew field \(D_1,D_2\), respectively, and \(H(V)\) one of the groups \(GL(V)\) or \(PGL(V)\), under what conditions is \(H(V_1)\equiv H(V_2)\)? For the finite-dimensional case this is known to be the case exactly if the dimensions are the same and \(D_1\equiv D_2\) or \(D_1\equiv D_2^{\text{op}}\). The main results obtained here are the following: For a vector space \(V\) over \(D\) of dimension \(\kappa\geq \aleph_0\) the theories of the corresponding projective space, of \(\text{End}(V)\) and of \(PGL(V)\) and \(GL(V)\) are all mutually syntactically interpretable. Furthermore, also the theory of two-sorted structures \(\langle \kappa,D\rangle\) in second-order logic allowing quantification over sets of size less than \(\kappa ^+\) and the theory of \(\langle V,D\rangle\) in the monadic fragment \(\text{Mon}(\kappa^+)\) are mutually syntactically interpretable. A certain analogue of these results is proved for the groups \(\Gamma L(V)\) and \(P\Gamma L(V)\). Thus, the problem is answered in Theorem 11.4 in the following way: \(GL(\kappa_1,D_1)\equiv GL(\kappa_2,D_2)\) if and only if \(PGL(\kappa_1,D_1)\equiv PGL(\kappa_2,D_2)\) if and only if the corresponding second-order theories of the two sorted structures \(\langle \kappa_1,D_1\rangle\) and \(\langle \kappa_2,D_2\rangle\) are the same.