Uniform first-order definitions in finitely generated fields

Abstract: We prove that there is a first-order sentence in the language of rings that is true for all finitely generated fields of characteristic 0 and false for all fields of characteristic >0. We also prove that for each n in N, there is a first-order formula psi_n(x_1,...,x_n) that when interpreted in a finitely generated field K is true for elements x_1,...,x_n in K if and only if the elements are algebraically dependent over the prime field in K.

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The general question underlying the paper is the following: can a given property be expressed by the truth of a first-order sentence? The author focusses on finitely generated fields (i.e. fields that are finitely generated over the prime subfield) considered as first-order structures in the usual language of rings. The two main results can be stated as follow. First, there is a first-order sentence that is true for all finitely generated fields of characteristic \(0\) but false for all fields of positive characteristic. Second, given any positive integer \(n\), there is a formula with \(n\) free variables that, when interpreted in a finitely generated field \(K\), is true for elements \(x_1, \ldots , x_n \in K\) if and only if these elements are algebraically independent over the prime subfield of \(K\). The author also shows that the formulas expected in the two results above cannot be purely existential.

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