Elements of Algebraic Geometry and the Positive Theory of Partially Commutative Groups

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-2010-035-5
Canad. J. Math. 62(2010), 481-519

  Published:2010-03-18
 Printed: Jun 2010

The first main result of the paper is a criterion for a partially commutative group $\mathbb G$ to be a domain. It allows us to reduce the study of algebraic sets over $\mathbb G$ to the study of irreducible algebraic sets, and reduce the elementary theory of $\mathbb G$ (of a coordinate group over $\mathbb G$) to the elementary theories of the direct factors of $\mathbb G$ (to the elementary theory of coordinate groups of irreducible algebraic sets). Then we establish normal forms for quantifier-free formulas over a non-abelian directly indecomposable partially commutative group $\mathbb H$. Analogously to the case of free groups, we introduce the notion of a generalised equation and prove that the positive theory of $\mathbb H$ has quantifier elimination and that arbitrary first-order formulas lift from $\mathbb H$ to $\mathbb H\ast F$, where $F$ is a free group of finite rank. As a consequence, the positive theory of an arbitrary partially commutative group is decidable.