On the universal theory of torsion and lacunary hyperbolic groups

Abstract

We show that the universal theory of torsion groups is strongly contained in the universal theory of finite groups. This answers a question of Dyson. We also prove that the universal theory of some natural classes of torsion groups is undecidable. Finally we observe that the universal theory of the class of hyperbolic groups is undecidable and use this observation to construct a lacunary hyperbolic group with undecidable universal theory. Surprisingly, torsion groups play an important role in the proof of the latter results.