Comparing material and structural set theories

We study elementary theories of well-pointed toposes and pretoposes, regarded as category-theoretic or “structural” set theories in the spirit of Lawvere's “Elementary Theory of the Category of Sets”. We consider weak intuitionistic and predicative theories of pretoposes, and we also propose category-theoretic versions of stronger axioms such as unbounded separation, replacement, and collection. Finally, we compare all of these theories formally to traditional membership-based or “material” set theories, using a version of the classical construction based on internal well-founded relations.     

Fuzzy Horn logic II

The paper studies closure properties of classes of fuzzy structures defined by fuzzy implicational theories, i.e. theories whose formulas are implications between fuzzy identities. We present generalizations of results from the bivalent case. Namely, we characterize model classes of general implicational theories, finitary implicational theories, and Horn theories by means of closedness under suitable algebraic constructions.     

Noncommutative two-dimensional topological field theories and Hurwitz numbers for real algebraic curves

It is well known that the classical two-dimensional topological field theories are in one-to-one correspondence with the commutative Frobenius algebras. An important extension of classical two-dimensional topological field theories is provided by open-closed two-dimensional topological field theories. In this paper we extend open-closed two-dimensional topological field theories to nonorientable surfaces. We call them Klein topological field theories (KTFT). We prove that KTFTs bijectively correspond to (in general noncommutative) algebras with certain additional structures, called structure algebras. The semisimple structure algebras are classified. Starting from an arbitrary finite group, we construct a structure algebra and prove that it is semisimple. We define an analog of Hurwitz numbers for real algebraic curves and prove that they are correlators of a KTFT. The structure algebra of this KTFT is the structure algebra of a symmetric group.     

On decidability of the decomposability problem for finite theories

We consider the decomposability problem for elementary theories, i.e. the problem of deciding whether a theory has a nontrivial representation as a union of two (or several) theories in disjoint signatures. For finite universal Horn theories, we prove that the decomposability problem is $ \sum _1^0 $ \sum _1^0 -complete and, thus, undecidable. We also demonstrate that the decomposability problem is decidable for finite theories in signatures consisting only of monadic predicates and constants.     

Theories of Mathematics Education: A global survey of theoretical frameworks/trends in mathematics education research

In this article we survey the history of research on theories in mathematics education. We also briefly examine the origins of this line of inquiry, the contribution of Hans-Georg Steiner, the activities of various international topics groups and current discussions of theories in mathematics education research. We conclude by outlining current positions and questions addressed by mathematics education researchers in the research forum on theories at the 2005 PME meeting in Melbourne, Australia.     

Strings, susy gauge theories, and integrable systems

We consider supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in the general framework of string theory (M-theory) and describe particular compactifications leading to the Seiberg-Witten (SW) exact effective theories. We show strong parallels between SW and integrable system theories. This paper was written at the request of the Editorial Board. Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 121, No. 2, pp. 179–243. November, 1999.     

Inessential Combinations and Colorings of Models

We define the operations of an inessential combination and an almost inessential combination of models and theories. We establish basedness for an (almost) inessential combination of theories. We also establish that the properties of smallness and -stability are preserved upon passing to (almost) inessential combinations of theories. We define the notions of coloring of a model, colored model, and colored theory, and transfer the assertions about combinations to the case of colorings. We characterize the inessential colorings of a polygonometry.     

Super-Brauer characters and super-regular classes

Persi Diaconis and I. M. Isaacs generalized the character theory to super-character theories for an arbitrary finite group (Diaconis and Isaacs, in Trans Am Math Soc 360(5):2359–2392, 2008). In these theories, the irreducible characters are replaced by certain so-called supercharacters, and the conjugacy classes of the group are replaced by superclasses. Also, Diaconis and Isaacs discussed supercharacter theories and gave some properties of them. We consider in this note certain sums of irreducible Brauer characters and compatible unions of regular conjugacy classes in an arbitrary finite group and we give a generalization of the Brauer character theory to super-Brauer character theories. We also discuss super-Brauer character theories and obtain some results which are similar to those of Diaconis and Isaacs.     

Multiexponential models of (1+1)-dimensional dilaton gravity and Toda-Liouville integrable models

We study general properties of a class of two-dimensional dilaton gravity (DG) theories with potentials containing several exponential terms. We isolate and thoroughly study a subclass of such theories in which the equations of motion reduce to Toda and Liouville equations. We show that the equation parameters must satisfy a certain constraint, which we find and solve for the most general multiexponential model. It follows from the constraint that integrable Toda equations in DG theories generally cannot appear without accompanying Liouville equations. The most difficult problem in the two-dimensional Toda-Liouville (TL) DG is to solve the energy and momentum constraints. We discuss this problem using the simplest examples and identify the main obstacles to solving it analytically. We then consider a subclass of integrable two-dimensional theories where scalar matter fields satisfy the Toda equations and the two-dimensional metric is trivial. We consider the simplest case in some detail. In this example, we show how to obtain the general solution. We also show how to simply derive wavelike solutions of general TL systems. In the DG theory, these solutions describe nonlinear waves coupled to gravity and also static states and cosmologies. For static states and cosmologies, we propose and study a more general one-dimensional TL model typically emerging in one-dimensional reductions of higher-dimensional gravity and supergravity theories. We especially attend to making the analytic structure of the solutions of the Toda equations as simple and transparent as possible.     

Groups with exactly two supercharacter theories

In this paper, we classify those finite groups with exactly two supercharacter theories. We show that the solvable groups with two supercharacter theories are ?₃ and S₃. We also show that the only nonsolvable group with two supercharacter theories is Sp(6,2).     

Remarks on generic stability in independent theories

In NIP theories, generically stable Keisler measures can be characterized in several ways. We analyze these various forms of “generic stability” in arbitrary theories. Among other things, we show that the standard definition of generic stability for types coincides with the notion of a frequency interpretation measure. We also give combinatorial examples of types in NSOP theories that are finitely approximated but not generically stable, as well as ϕ-types in simple theories that are definable and finitely satisfiable in a small model, but not finitely approximated. Our proofs demonstrate interesting connections to classical results from Ramsey theory for finite graphs and hypergraphs.     

Super-Brauer characters and super-regular classes

Persi Diaconis and I. M. Isaacs generalized the character theory to super-character theories for an arbitrary finite group (Diaconis and Isaacs, in Trans Am Math Soc 360(5):2359–2392, 2008). In these theories, the irreducible characters are replaced by certain so-called supercharacters, and the conjugacy classes of the group are replaced by superclasses. Also, Diaconis and Isaacs discussed supercharacter theories and gave some properties of them. We consider in this note certain sums of irreducible Brauer characters and compatible unions of regular conjugacy classes in an arbitrary finite group and we give a generalization of the Brauer character theory to super-Brauer character theories. We also discuss super-Brauer character theories and obtain some results which are similar to those of Diaconis and Isaacs.     

The \mu quantification operator in explicit mathematics with universes and iterated fixed point theories with ordinals

This paper is about two topics: 1. systems of explicit mathematics with universes and a non-constructive quantification operator $\mu$; 2. iterated fixed point theories with ordinals. We give a proof-theoretic treatment of both families of theories; in particular, ordinal theories are used to get upper bounds for explicit theories with finitely many universes. Received February 2, 1996     

On lovely pairs of geometric structures

We study the theory of lovely pairs of geometric structures, in particular o-minimal structures. We use the pairs to isolate a class of geometric structures called weakly locally modular which generalizes the class of linear structures in the settings of SU-rank one theories and o-minimal theories. For o-minimal theories, we use the Peterzil-Starchenko trichotomy theorem to characterize for a sufficiently general point, the local geometry around it in terms of the thorn U-rank of its type inside a lovely pair.     

On Acyclic Hypergraphs of Minimal Prime Models

We discuss the question of restoring the structural properties of theories from the hypergraphs of minimal prime models. We describe the spectrum and the main model-theoretic properties of acyclic complete theories with the property of extension of isomorphisms of families of minimal prime models.     

Criteria for exact saturation and singular compactness

We introduce the class of unshreddable theories, which contains the simple and NIP theories, and prove that such theories have exactly saturated models in singular cardinals, satisfying certain set-theoretic hypotheses. We also give criteria for a theory to have singular compactness.     

Unified description of cosmological and static solutions in affine generalized theories of gravity: Vecton-scalaron duality and its applications

We briefly describe the simplest class of affine theories of gravity in multidimensional space-times with symmetric connections and their reductions to two-dimensional dilaton-vecton gravity field theories. The distinctive feature of these theories is the presence of an absolutely neutral massive (or tachyonic) vector field (vecton) with an essentially nonlinear coupling to the dilaton gravity. We emphasize that the vecton field in dilaton-vecton gravity can be consistently replaced by a new effectively massive scalar field (scalaron) with an unusual coupling to the dilaton gravity. With this vecton-scalaron duality, we can use the methods and results of the standard dilaton gravity coupled to usual scalars in more complex dilaton-scalaron gravity theories equivalent to dilaton-vecton gravity. We present the dilaton-vecton gravity models derived by reductions of multidimensional affine theories and obtain one-dimensional dynamical systems simultaneously describing cosmological and static states in any gauge. Our approach is fully applicable to studying static and cosmological solutions in multidimensional theories and also in general one-dimensional dilaton-scalaron gravity models. We focus on general and global properties of the models, seeking integrals and analyzing the structure of the solution space. In integrable cases, it can be usefully visualized by drawing a “topological portrait” resembling the phase portraits of dynamical systems and simply exposing the global properties of static and cosmological solutions, including horizons, singularities, etc. For analytic approximations, we also propose an integral equation well suited for iterations.