Canonical and existential groups in universal classes of Abelian groups

Abstract

Universal classes of Abelian groups are classified in terms of sets of finitely generated groups closed with respect to the discrimination operator. The notions of a principal universal class and a canonical group for such a class are introduced. For any universal class K, the class K^ec of existentially closed groups generated by the universal theory of K is described. It is proved that K^ec is axiomatizable and, therefore, the universal theory of K has a model companion.