Topological models of arithmetic

Abstract

Ali Enayat had asked whether there is a nonstandard model of Peano arithmetic (PA) that can be represented as $\langle\mathbb{Q},\oplus,\otimes\rangle$, where $\oplus$ and $\otimes$ are continuous functions on the rationals $\mathbb{Q}$. We prove, affirmatively, that indeed every countable model of PA has such a continuous presentation on the rationals. More generally, we investigate the topological spaces that arise as such topological models of arithmetic. The reals $\mathbb{R}$, the reals in any finite dimension $\mathbb{R}^n$, the long line and the Cantor space do not, and neither does any Suslin line; many other spaces do; the status of the Baire space is open.