Two Undecidability Results using Modified Boolean Powers

Abstract

In this paper we will give brief proofs of two results on the undecidability of a first-order theory using a construction which we call a modified Boolean power. Modified Boolean powers were introduced by Burris in late 1978, and the first results were announced in [2]. Subsequently we succeeded in using this construction to prove the results in this paper, namely Ershov's theorem that every variety of groups containing a finite non-abelian group has an undecidable theory, and Zamjatin's theorem that a variety of rings with unity which is not generated by finitely many finite fields has an undecidable theory. Later McKenzie further modified the construction mentioned above, and combined it with a variant of one of Zamjatin's constructions to prove the sweeping main result of [3]. The proofs given here have the advantage (over the original proofs) that they use a single construction.