Group covers, o-minimality, and categoricity (Q624901)

Let \(M\) be an o-minimal structure and \(H\) a definable group in \(M\). This paper studies the model theory of exact sequences \(1\to \Gamma\to G\to H\to 1\) (where \(\iota:\Gamma\to G\) and \(\pi:G\to H\)), that is, studying the model theory of the three-sorted structure \(N:=(\Gamma,\iota,G,\pi,M)\). The first question the authors consider is when the structure \(N\) is ``naturally interpretable'' in the structure \(M\) under the assumption that \(\Gamma\) is finite and contained in the center of \(G\). The authors prove, under the additional assumption that \(H\) is definably connected, two equivalent conditions for \(N\) to be naturally interpretable in \(M\), namely that \(M\) is stably embedded in \(N\) and \(M\) is an o-minimal set in \(N\). They then prove that these three equivalent conditions hold when \(H\) is abelian and give a further equivalent condition in the case that \(H\) is definably compact, namely that the sequence splits over \(H^{00}\) (the smallest type-definable subgroup of \(H\) of finite index) in the sense that the sequence \(1\to \Gamma\to G^{00}\to H^{00}\to 1\) splits as an extension of abstract groups, where \(G^{00}:=\pi^{-1}(H^{00})\). The other general topic that the paper studies is the case when the exact sequence above represents a ``cover'' of \(H\). Suppose that \(M\) is just the real field and \(\pi:G\to H\) is the universal cover (in the sense of topology) of some connected Lie group \(H\) definable in \(M\). Using some facts concerning the existence of cross-sections and definable cocycles, the authors prove that there is a single \(L_{\omega_1,\omega}\)-sentence \(\sigma\) which is true of \(N\) such that, whenever \(N_1\) and \(N_2\) are two models of \(\sigma\), then any isomorphism \(M_1\to M_2\) uniquely lifts to an isomorphism of \(N_1\) and \(N_2\). (The authors point out that this result fails in the complex case by considering the universal cover of the circle group with the complex field as the ambient theory.) The paper then proceeds to discuss the model theory of \(N=(\mathbb{Z},\text{id},\mathbb{R},\text{exp},M)\). More specifically, if \(G\) is an abelian, divisible, torsion-free group and \(H=\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\), then the authors characterize when \((\mathbb{Z},\text{id},G,\pi,M)\) is elementarily equivalent to \(N\) or isomorphic to \(N,\) and, more generally, discuss how to characterize the isomorphism type of such a structure, proving, in the process, that there are at least continuum many isomorphism types.