# Vahagn Aslanyan: Geometry of strongly minimal sets in differentially closed fields

Mathematical logic seminar – Apr 17 2018
Time:     3:30pm – 4:30 pm

Room:     Wean Hall 8220

Speaker:         Vahagn Aslanyan
Department of Mathematical Sciences
CMU

Title:     Geometry of strongly minimal sets in differentially closed fields

Abstract:

I will discuss Zilber’s Trichotomy conjecture and some structures (theories) where it holds (the conjecture in its general form was refuted by Hrushovski). In particular, by a result of Hrushovski and Sokolovic differentially closed fields satisfy Zilber’s trichotomy. However, understanding whether a given definable set is strongly minimal or, given a strongly minimal set, understanding the nature of its geometry is not an easy task. I will show how one can use the Ax-Schanuel theorem for the j-function to deduce strong minimality and geometric triviality of the differential equation of the j-function (I will also explain why it is an important example). This result was first proven by Freitag and Scanlon using the analytic properties of the j-function. My approach is completely abstract, I actually prove that once there is an Ax-Schanuel type statement of a certain form for a differential equation E(x,y) then some fibres of E are strongly minimal and geometrically trivial.