arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Will Johnson.
We give a simplified proof of elimination of imaginaries (in the geometric sorts) in ACVF, based on ideas of Hrushovski. This proof manages to avoid many of the technical issues which arose in the original proof by Haskell, Hrushovski, and Macpherson.
We prove that an expansion of an algebraically closed field by $n$ arbitrary valuation rings is NTP${}_2$, and in fact has finite burden. It fails to be NIP, however, unless the valuation rings form a chain. Moreover, the incomplete theory of algebraically closed fields with $n$ valuation rings is decidable.
We classify dp-minimal pure fields up to elementary equivalence. Most are equivalent to Hahn series fields $K((t^Γ))$ where $Γ$ satisfies some divisibility conditions and $K$ is $\mathbb{F}_p^{alg}$ or a local field of characteristic zero. We show that dp-small fields (including VC-minimal fields) are algebraically closed or real closed.
We consider the inverse boundary value problem in the case of discrete electrical networks containing nonlinear (non-ohmic) resistors. Generalizing work of Curtis, Ingerman, Morrow, Colin de Verdiere, Gitler, and Vertigan, we characterize the circular planar graphs for which the inverse boundary value problem has a solution in this generalized non-linear setting. The answer is the same as in the linear setting. Our method of proof never requires that the resistors behave in a continuous or monotone fashion; this allows us to recover signed conductances in many cases. We apply this to the problem of recovery in graphs that are not circular planar. We also use our results to make a frivolous knot-theoretic statement, and to slightly generalize a fact proved by Lam and Pylyavskyy about factorization schemes in their electrical linear group.
We consider the class of "well-tempered" integer-valued scoring games, which have the property that the parity of the length of the game is independent of the line of play. We consider disjunctive sums of these games, and develop a theory for them analogous to the standard theory of disjunctive sums of normal-play partizan games. We show that the monoid of well-tempered scoring games modulo indistinguishability is cancellative but not a group, and we describe its structure in terms of the group of normal-play partizan games. We also classify Boolean-valued well-tempered scoring games, showing that there are exactly seventy, up to equivalence.
We begin by reviewing and proving the basic facts of combinatorial game theory. We then consider scoring games (also known as Milnor games or positional games), focusing on the "fixed-length" games for which all sequences of play terminate after the same number of moves. The theory of fixed-length scoring games is shown to have properties similar to the theory of loopy combinatorial games, with operations similar to onsides and offsides. We give a complete description of the structure of fixed-length scoring games in terms of the class of short partizan games. We also consider fixed-length scoring games taking values in the two-element boolean algebra, and classify these games up to indistinguishability. We then apply these results to analyze some positions in the knotting-unknotting game of Pechenik, Townsend, Henrich, MacNaughton, and Silversmith.