The Tarski Theorems and Elementary Equivalence of Group Rings

Abstract

The Tarski theorems, proved by Myasnikov and Kharlampovich and inde-pendently by Sela say that all nonabelian free groups satisfy the same first-order or elementary theory. Kharlampovich and Myasnikov also prove that the elementary theory of free groups is decidable. For a group ring they have proved that the first-order theory (in the language of ring theory) is not decidable and have studied equations over group rings, especially for torsion-free hyperbolic groups. In this note we examine and survey extensions of Tarksi-like results to the collection of group rings and examine relationships between the universal and elementary theories of the corresponding groups and rings and the corresponding universal theory of the formed group ring. To accomplish this we introduce different first-order languages with equality whose model classes are respectively groups, rings and group rings. We prove that if R[G] is elementarily equivalent to S[H] then simultaneously the group G is elementarily equivalent to the group H and the ring R is elementarily equivalent to the ring S with respect to the appropriate languages. Further if G is universally equivalent to a nonabelian free group F and R is universally equivalent to the integers Z then R[G] is universally equivalent to Z[F] again with respect to an ap-propriate language.