CONJUGACY OF CARTER SUBGROUPS IN GROUPS OF FINITE MORLEY RANK

The Cherlin–Zil'ber Conjecture states that all simple groups of finite Morley rank are algebraic. We prove that any minimal counterexample to this conjecture has a unique conjugacy class of Carter subgroups, which are analogous to Cartan subgroups in algebraic groups.

Generix never gives up

We prove conjugacy and generic disjointness of generous Carter subgroups in groups of finite Morley rank. We elaborate on groups with a generous Carter subgroup and on a minimal counterexample to the Genericity Conjecture.

On minimal faithful permutation representations of finite groups

The minimal faithful permutation degree μ(G) of a finite group G is the least positive integer n such that G is isomorphic to a subgroup of the symmetric group Sn. Let N be a normal subgroup of a finite group G. We prove that μ(G/N) ≤ μ(G) if G/N has no nontrivial Abelian normal subgroup. There is an as yet unproved conjecture that the same conclusion holds if G/N is Abelian. We investigate the structure of a (hypothetical) minimal counterexample to this conjecture.

A minimal counterexample to universal baireness

For a canonical model of set theory whose projective theory of the real numbers is stable under set forcing extensions, a set of reals of minimal complexity is constructed which fails to be universally Baire. The construction uses a general method for generating non-universally Baire sets via the Levy collapse of a cardinal, as well as core model techniques. Along the way it is shown (extending previous results of Steel) how sufficiently iterable fine structure models recognize themselves as global core models.

The topological Vaught's conjecture and minimal counterexamples

Let G be a Polish topological group, let X be a Polish space, let J: G × X → X be a Borel-measurable action of G on X, and let A ⊂ X be a Borel set which is invariant with respect to J, i.e., a Borel set of orbits. The following statement, or various equivalent versions of it, is known as the Topological Vaught's Conjecture.Let (G, X, J, A) be as above. Either A contains only countably many orbits, or else, A contains perfectly many orbits.We say that A contains perfectly many orbits if there is a perfect set P ⊂ A such that no two elements of P are in the same orbit. (Assuming ¬CH, A contains perfectly many orbits iff it contains 2ℵ0 orbits.) The Topological Vaught's Conjecture implies the usual, model theoretic, Vaught's Conjecture for Lω1ω, since the isomorphism classes are the orbits of an action of the group of permutations of ω; we give details in §0. The “Borel” assumption cannot be weakened for either A or J.Given a Borel-measurable Polish action (G,X,J) and an invariant Borel set B ⊂ X, we say that B is a minimal counterexample if (G,X,J,B) is a counterexample to the Topological Vaught's Conjecture and for every invariant Borel C ⊂ B, either C or B\C contains only countably many orbits. This paper is concerned with counterexamples to the Topological Vaught's Conjecture (of course, there may not be any), and in particular, with minimal counterexamples. First, there is a theorem on the existence of minimal counterexamples. This theorem was known for the model theoretic case (it is due to Harnik and Makkai), and is here generalized to arbitrary Borel-measurable Polish actions. Second, we study the properties of minimal counterexamples. We give two different necessary and sufficient conditions for a counterexample to be minimal, as well as some consequences of minimality. Some of these results are proved assuming determinacy axioms.This second part seems to be new even in the model theoretic case.