Tarski-type problems for free associative algebras (Q1702719)

This important paper answers fundamental model-theoretic questions about \(\mathbb A_K(X)\), the free associative algebra with basis \(X\) over the field \(K\). Given an \(\mathcal L\)-structure \(\mathbb A\) with universe \(A\), let \(\mathrm{HF}(A)\) be the collection of hereditarily finite sets over \(A\). This is the set of hereditarily finite sets in the set-theoretic universe which takes \(A\) to be a set of atoms. The authors define \(\mathrm{HF}(\mathbb A)\) to be the \(2\)-sorted structure \(\langle \mathbb A, \mathrm{HF}(A); \in\rangle\). The main results of the paper are: (1) The first-order theory of \(\mathbb A_K(X)\) is undecidable for any field \(K\) and any nonempty set \(X\). (2) The free bases are definable in \(\mathbb A_K(X)\) when \(X\) is finite and \(K\) is infinite. (3) If at least one of \(\mathbb A_K(X)\) and \(\mathbb A_L(Y)\) is infinite, then these structures are elementarily equivalent iff \(|X|\) and \(|Y|\) are finite and equal or both infinite, and \(\mathrm{HF}(K)\) is elementarily equivalent to \(\mathrm{HF}(L)\). (4) In fact, if \(K\) is any infinite field, and \(B\) is any ring with a proper Noetherian centralizer, then \(B\equiv \mathbb A_K(X)\) iff \(B\cong \mathbb A_L(Y)\) as in Item (3). (5) The arithmetical hierachy over \(\mathbb A_K(X)\) is proper when \(K\) is infinite. There are some similar results for nonunital free \(K\)-algebras. The paper ends with four open problems.