Let T be a second-order arithmetical theory, Λ a well-order, λ < Λ and X ⊆ ℕ. We use $[\lambda |X]_T^{\rm{\Lambda }}\varphi$ as a formalization of “φ is provable from T and an oracle for the set X, using ω-rules of nesting depth at most λ”.

For a set of formulas Γ, define predicative oracle reflection for T over Γ (Pred–O–RFNΓ(T)) to be the schema that asserts that, if X ⊆ ℕ, Λ is a well-order and φ ∈ Γ, then

$$\forall \,\lambda < {\rm{\Lambda }}\,([\lambda |X]_T^{\rm{\Lambda }}\varphi \to \varphi ).$$

In particular, define predicative oracle consistency (Pred–O–Cons(T)) as Pred–O–RFN{0=1}(T).

Our main result is as follows. Let ATR0 be the second-order theory of Arithmetical Transfinite Recursion, ${\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}}$ be Weakened Recursive Comprehension and ACA be Arithmetical Comprehension with Full Induction. Then,

$${\rm{ATR}}_0 \equiv {\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}} + {\rm{Pred - O - Cons\ }}\left( {{\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}} } \right) \equiv {\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}} + \,{\rm{Pred - O - Cons\ }}\left( {{\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}} } \right) \equiv {\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}} + \,{\rm{Pred - O - RFN}}\,_{{\bf{\Pi }}_2^1 } \left( {{\rm{ACA}}} \right).$$

We may even replace ${\rm{RCA}}_0^{\rm{*}}$ by the weaker ECA0, the second-order analogue of Elementary Arithmetic.

Thus we characterize ATR0, a theory often considered to embody Predicative Reductionism, in terms of strong reflection and consistency principles.

We formulate combinatorial principles that combine the square principle with various strong forms of the diamond principle, and prove that the strongest amongst them holds in L for every infinite cardinal.

As an application, we prove that the following two hold in L:

1. 1. For every infinite regular cardinal λ, there exists a special λ+-Aronszajn tree whose projection is almost Souslin;

2. 2. For every infinite cardinal λ, there exists a respecting λ+-Kurepa tree; Roughly speaking, this means that this λ+-Kurepa tree looks very much like the λ+-Souslin trees that Jensen constructed in L.

A narrow system is a combinatorial object introduced by Magidor and Shelah in connection with work on the tree property at successors of singular cardinals. In analogy to the tree property, a cardinal κ satisfies the narrow system property if every narrow system of height κ has a cofinal branch. In this paper, we study connections between the narrow system property, square principles, and forcing axioms. We prove, assuming large cardinals, both that it is consistent that ℵω+1 satisfies the narrow system property and $\square _{\aleph _\omega , < \aleph _\omega } $ holds and that it is consistent that every regular cardinal satisfies the narrow system property. We introduce natural strengthenings of classical square principles and show how they can be used to produce narrow systems with no cofinal branch. Finally, we show that the Proper Forcing Axiom implies that every narrow system of countable width has a cofinal branch but is consistent with the existence of a narrow system of width ω1 with no cofinal branch.

We introduce the notion of ${\cal C}$-system of filters, generalizing the standard definitions of both extenders and towers of normal ideals. This provides a framework to develop the theory of extenders and towers in a more general and concise way. In this framework we investigate the topic of definability of generic large cardinals properties.

The following will be shown: Let I be a σ-ideal on a Polish space X so that the associated forcing of I+${\bf{\Delta }}_1^1$ sets ordered by ⊆ is a proper forcing. Let E be a ${\bf{\Sigma }}_1^1$ or a ${\bf{\Pi }}_1^1$ equivalence relation on X with all equivalence classes ${\bf{\Delta }}_1^1$. If for all $z \in {H_{{{\left( {{2^{{\aleph _0}}}} \right)}^ + }}}$, z♯ exists, then there exists an I+${\bf{\Delta }}_1^1$ set C ⊆ X such that E ↾ C is a ${\bf{\Delta }}_1^1$ equivalence relation.

We consider the question “Is every nonzero generic degree a density-1-bounding generic degree?” By previous results [8] either resolution of this question would answer an open question concerning the structure of the generic degrees: A positive result would prove that there are no minimal generic degrees, and a negative result would prove that there exist minimal pairs in the generic degrees.

We consider several techniques for showing that the answer might be positive, and use those techniques to prove that a wide class of assumptions is sufficient to prove density-1-bounding.

We also consider a historic difficulty in constructing a potential counterexample: By previous results [7] any generic degree that is not density-1-bounding must be quasiminimal, so in particular, any construction of a non-density-1-bounding generic degree must use a method that is able to construct a quasiminimal generic degree. However, all previously known examples of quasiminimal sets are also density-1, and so trivially density-1-bounding. We provide several examples of non-density-1 sets that are quasiminimal.

Using cofinite and mod-finite reducibility, we extend our results to the uniform coarse degrees, and to the nonuniform generic degrees. We define all of the above terms, and we provide independent motivation for the study of each of them.

Combined with a concurrently written paper of Hirschfeldt, Jockusch, Kuyper, and Schupp [4], this paper provides a characterization of the level of randomness required to ensure quasiminimality in the uniform and nonuniform coarse and generic degrees.

The principle (*) of Sierpinski is the assertion that there is a family of functions $\left\{ {{\varphi _n}:{\omega _1} \to {\omega _1}|n \in \omega } \right\}$ such that for every $I \in {[{\omega _1}]^{{\omega _1}}}$ there is n ε ω such that ${\varphi _n}[I] = {\omega _1}$. We prove that this principle holds if there is a nonmeager set of size ω1 answering question of Arnold W. Miller. Combining our result with a theorem of Miller it then follows that (*) is equivalent to $non\left( {\cal M} \right) = {\omega _1}$. Miller also proved that the principle of Sierpinki is equivalent to the existence of a weak version of a Luzin set, we will construct a model where all of these sets are meager yet $non\left( {\cal M} \right) = {\omega _1}$.

It is shown that Tarski’s set of ten axioms for the calculus of relations is independent in the sense that no axiom can be derived from the remaining axioms. It is also shown that by modifying one of Tarski’s axioms slightly, and in fact by replacing the right-hand distributive law for relative multiplication with its left-hand version, we arrive at an equivalent set of axioms which is redundant in the sense that one of the axioms, namely the second involution law, is derivable from the other axioms. The set of remaining axioms is independent. Finally, it is shown that if both the left-hand and right-hand distributive laws for relative multiplication are included in the set of axioms, then two of Tarski’s other axioms become redundant, namely the second involution law and the distributive law for converse. The set of remaining axioms is independent and equivalent to Tarski’s axiom system.

We study the problem of extending an abstract independence notion for types of singletons (what Shelah calls a good frame) to longer types. Working in the framework of tame abstract elementary classes, we show that good frames can always be extended to types of independent sequences. As an application, we show that tameness and a good frame imply Shelah’s notion of dimension is well-behaved, complementing previous work of Jarden and Sitton. We also improve a result of the first author on extending a frame to larger models.

We show that metric abstract elementary classes (mAECs) are, in the sense of [15], coherent accessible categories with directed colimits, with concrete ℵ1-directed colimits and concrete monomorphisms. More broadly, we define a notion of κ-concrete AEC—an AEC-like category in which only the κ-directed colimits need be concrete—and develop the theory of such categories, beginning with a category-theoretic analogue of Shelah’s Presentation Theorem and a proof of the existence of an Ehrenfeucht–Mostowski functor in case the category is large. For mAECs in particular, arguments refining those in [15] yield a proof that any categorical mAEC is μ-d-stable in many cardinals below the categoricity cardinal.

We show that under Dickson’s conjecture about the distribution of primes in the natural numbers, the theory Th (ℤ , +, 1, 0, Pr) where Pr is a predicate for the prime numbers and their negations is decidable, unstable, and supersimple. This is in contrast with Th (ℤ , +, 0, Pr, <) which is known to be undecidable by the works of Jockusch, Bateman, and Woods.

Unimodularity is localized to a complete stationary type, and its properties are analysed. Some variants of unimodularity for definable and type-definable sets are introduced, and the relationship between these different notions is studied. In particular, it is shown that all notions coincide for non-multidimensional theories where the dimensions are associated to strongly minimal types.

Measuring says that for every sequence ${\left( {{C_\delta }} \right)_{\delta < {\omega _1}}}$ with each ${C_\delta }$ being a closed subset of δ there is a club $C \subseteq {\omega _1}$ such that for every $\delta \in C$ , a tail of $C\mathop \cap \nolimits \delta$ is either contained in or disjoint from ${C_\delta }$ . We answer a question of Justin Moore by building a forcing extension satisfying measuring together with ${2^{{\aleph _0}}} > {\aleph _2}$ . The construction works over any model of ZFC + CH and can be described as a finite support forcing iteration with systems of countable structures as side conditions and with symmetry constraints imposed on its initial segments. One interesting feature of this iteration is that it adds dominating functions $f:{\omega _1} \to {\omega _1}$ mod. countable at each stage.

For a group G definable in a first order structure M we develop basic topological dynamics in the category of definable G-flows. In particular, we give a description of the universal definable G-ambit and of the semigroup operation on it. We find a natural epimorphism from the Ellis group of this flow to the definable Bohr compactification of G, that is to the quotient ${G^{\rm{*}}}/G_M^{{\rm{*}}00}$ (where G* is the interpretation of G in a monster model). More generally, we obtain these results locally, i.e., in the category of Δ-definable G-flows for any fixed set Δ of formulas of an appropriate form. In particular, we define local connected components $G_{{\rm{\Delta }},M}^{{\rm{*}}00}$ and $G_{{\rm{\Delta }},M}^{{\rm{*}}000}$, and show that ${G^{\rm{*}}}/G_{{\rm{\Delta }},M}^{{\rm{*}}00}$ is the Δ-definable Bohr compactification of G. We also note that some deeper arguments from [14] can be adapted to our context, showing for example that our epimorphism from the Ellis group to the Δ-definable Bohr compactification factors naturally yielding a continuous epimorphism from the Δ-definable generalized Bohr compactification to the Δ-definable Bohr compactification of G. Finally, we propose to view certain topological-dynamic and model-theoretic invariants as Polish structures which leads to some observations and questions.

We study Σ1(ω1)-definable sets (i.e., sets that are equal to the collection of all sets satisfying a certain Σ1-formula with parameter ω1 ) in the presence of large cardinals. Our results show that the existence of a Woodin cardinal and a measurable cardinal above it imply that no well-ordering of the reals is Σ1(ω1)-definable, the set of all stationary subsets of ω1 is not Σ1(ω1)-definable and the complement of every Σ1(ω1)-definable Bernstein subset of ${}_{}^{{\omega _1}}\omega _1^{}$ is not Σ1(ω1)-definable. In contrast, we show that the existence of a Woodin cardinal is compatible with the existence of a Σ1(ω1)-definable well-ordering of H(ω2) and the existence of a Δ1(ω1)-definable Bernstein subset of ${}_{}^{{\omega _1}}\omega _1^{}$. We also show that, if there are infinitely many Woodin cardinals and a measurable cardinal above them, then there is no Σ1(ω1)-definable uniformization of the club filter on ω1. Moreover, we prove a perfect set theorem for Σ1(ω1)-definable subsets of ${}_{}^{{\omega _1}}\omega _1^{}$, assuming that there is a measurable cardinal and the nonstationary ideal on ω1 is saturated. The proofs of these results use iterated generic ultrapowers and Woodin’s ℙmax-forcing. Finally, we also prove variants of some of these results for Σ1(κ)-definable subsets of κκ, in the case where κ itself has certain large cardinal properties.

We study the automorphism group of the algebraic closure of a substructure A of a pseudo-finite field F, or more generally, of a bounded PAC field F. This paper answers some of the questions of [1], and in particular that any finite group which is geometrically represented in a pseudo-finite field must be abelian.

It is shown that the positive existential theory of the structure (ℤ[S−1]; =, 0, 1, + , |), where S is a nonempty finite set of prime numbers, is undecidable. This result should be put in contrast with the fact that the positive existential theory of (ℤ; =, 0, 1, + |) is decidable.

We study automorphism groups of randomizations of separable structures, with focus on the ℵ0-categorical case. We give a description of the automorphism group of the Borel randomization in terms of the group of the original structure. In the ℵ0-categorical context, this provides a new source of Roelcke precompact Polish groups, and we describe the associated Roelcke compactifications. This allows us also to recover and generalize preservation results of stable and NIP formulas previously established in the literature, via a Banach-theoretic translation. Finally, we study and classify the separable models of the theory of beautiful pairs of randomizations, showing in particular that this theory is never ℵ0-categorical (except in basic cases).