Borel equivalence relations and classifications of countable models (Q5961495)

The authors follow the terminology of \textit{A. S. Kechris} [Classical descriptive set theory (Springer Verlag, Berlin) (1995; Zbl 0819.04002)]. Let \(G\) be a Polish group, \((X,a)\) be a Polish or standard Borel \(G\)-space. The orbit equivalence relation is defined by the equivalence \(xE_ay\equiv (\exists g\in G)a(g,x)=y\). An equivalence relation \(E\) is said to be finite (countable) if every equivalence class \([x]_E\) is finite (countable). The relation \(E\) is hyperfinite if \(E=\bigcup_{n=0}^{\infty}N_n\), where \(E_n\subseteq E_{n+1}\) are Borel and finite. The relation \(E\) is Borel reducible to \(F\), written \(E\leq_B F\), if \(xEy\equiv f(x)Ff(y)\) for some Borel function \(f\). Finally, \(E\) is said to be essentially countable if \(E\leq_b F\) for some countable Borel equivalence relation \(F\). \(S_{\infty}\) denotes the Polish group of all permutations of the set \(\mathbb N\) with the topology inherited from the Baire space \({\mathcal N}\). In the long introduction (almost 8 pages) the authors explain the ideas behind the results presented in the paper. The first two parts of the paper are introductory and contain notations and terminology. Some characterizations of essentially countable Borel \(S_{\infty}\)-spaces are presented in parts 3 and 4. Given a countable first-order language \(L\), the authors denote by \(X_L\) the space of all \(L\)-structures with universe \(\mathbb N\) as a compact subspace of \({\mathcal N}\). \(x\cong y\) means that the structures \(x,y\in X_L\) are isomorphic. For a sentence \(\sigma\in L_{\omega_1,\omega}\), we set \(\text{Mod}(\sigma)=\{x\in X_L:x\models \sigma\}\). \(\cong_{\sigma}\) denotes the restriction of \(\cong\) to the set \(\text{Mod}(\sigma)\). Part 4 starts with a characterization of when \(\cong_{\sigma}\) is smooth, i.e. when the countable models of \(\sigma\) can be completely classified, up to isomorphism, by a Borel function from \(\text{Mod}(\sigma)\) into a Polish space. In part 5 a series of interesting examples is given. The main result of part 6 says that every countable Borel equivalence relation is essentially hyperfinite on a dense \(G_{\delta}\) set. A sentence \(\sigma\in L_{\omega_1\omega}\) admits canonical models if, roughly speaking, there is a definable way of choosing a representative member of each equivalence class of countable models of \(\sigma\). Parts 7 and 8 are devoted to study canocical models and related notions of cocycles and treeability. The main result says that \(\sigma\) admits a canonical model iff the action of \(S_{\infty}\) on \(\text{Mod}(\sigma)\) has the cocycle property. An example of a sentence (infinite rank torsion-free group) not admitting canonical models is given in part 9. Another method for proving the nonexistence of canonical models is given in part 10 and it is based on a result by \textit{S. R. Adams} and \textit{R. J. Spatzier} [Am. J. Math. 112, No. 2, 271-287 (1990; Zbl 0712.22007)] concerning Kazhdan's groups. For the convenience of the reader, complete proofs of related results are presented in Appendices A and B.