The class of cycle-free partial orders (CFPOs) is defined, and the CFPOs fulfilling a natural transitivity assumption, called k-connected set transitivity (k-CS-transitivity), are analysed in some detail. Classification in many of the interesting cases is given. This work generlizes Droste's classification of the countable k-transitive trees (k>1). In a CFPO, the structure can be branch downwards as well as upwards, and can do so repeatedely (though it neverr returns to the starting point by a cycle). Mostly it is assumed that k>2 and that all maximal chains are finite. The main classification splits into the sporadic and skeletal cases. The former is complete in all cardinalities. The latter is performed only in the countable case. The classification is considerably more complicated than for trees, and skeletal CFPOs exhibit rich, elaborate and rather surprising behaviour.

This volume is about tree-like structures, namely semilinear ordering, general betweenness relations, C-relations and D-relations. It contains a systematic study of betweenness and introduces C- and D- relations to describe the behaviour of points at infinity (leaves or ends or directions of trees). The focus is on structure theorems and on automorphism groups, with applications to the theory of infinite permutation groups.

This volume focuses on group theory and model theory with a particular emphasis on the interplay of the two areas. The survey papers provide an overview of the developments across group, module, and model theory while the research papers present the most recent study in those same areas. With introductory sections that make the topics easily accessible to students, the papers in this volume will appeal to beginning graduate students and experienced researchers alike. As a whole, this book offers a cross-section view of the areas in group, module, and model theory, covering topics such as DP-minimal groups, Abelian groups, countable 1-transitive trees, and module approximations. The papers in this book are the proceedings of the conference “New Pathways between Group Theory and Model Theory,” which took place February 1-4, 2016, in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, in honor of the editors’ colleague Rüdiger Göbel. This publication is dedicated to Professor Göbel, who passed away in 2014. He was one of the leading experts in Abelian group theory.

Free probability theory, introduced by Voiculescu, has developed very actively in the last few years and has had an increasing impact on quite different fields in mathematics and physics. Whereas the subject arose out of the field of von Neumann algebras, presented here is a quite different view of Voiculescu's amalgamated free product. This combinatorial description not only allows re-proving of most of Voiculescu's results in a concise and elegant way, but also opens the way for many new results. Unlike other approaches, this book emphasizes the combinatorial structure of the concept of ``freeness''. This gives an elegant and easily accessible description of freeness and leads to new results in unexpected directions. Specifically, a mathematical framework for otherwise quite ad hoc approximations in physics emerges.

This book is intended for graduate students and research mathematicians working in group theory and generalizations.

This volume gives two new methods for constructing $p$-elementary Hopf algebra orders over the valuation ring $R$ of a local field $K$ containing the $p$-adic rational numbers. One method constructs Hopf orders using isogenies of commutative degree 2 polynomial formal groups of dimension $n$, and is built on a systematic study of such formal group laws. The other method uses an exponential generalization of a 1992 construction of Greither. Both constructions yield Raynaud orders as iterated extensions of rank $p$ Hopf algebras; the exponential method obtains all Raynaud orders whose invariants satisfy a certain $p$-adic condition.

The fundamental property of compact spaces - that continuous functions defined on compact spaces are bounded - served as a motivation for E. Hewitt to introduce the notion of a pseudocompact space. The class of pseudocompact spaces proved to be of fundamental importance in set-theoretic topology and its applications. This clear and self-contained exposition offers a comprehensive treatment of the question, When does a group admit an introduction of a pseudocompact Hausdorff topology that makes group operations continuous? Equivalently, what is the algebraic structure of a pseudocompact Hausdorff group? The authors have adopted a unifying approach that covers all known results and leads to new ones, Results in the book are free of any additional set-theoretic assumptions.