Computability for tree presentations of continuum-size structures

Abstract

We formalize an existing computability-theoretic method of presenting first-order structures whose domains have the cardinality of the continuum. Work using these methods until now has emphasized their topological properties. We shift the focus to first-order properties, using computable structure theory (on countable structures) as a guide. We present three basic questions to be asked when a structure is presented as the set of paths through a computable tree, as in our definition, and also propose the concept of tree-decidability as an analogue to the notion of decidability for a countable structure. As examples, we prove decidability results for certain additive and multiplicative groups of $p$-adic integers, products of these (such as the profinite completion of $\mathbb Z$), and the field of real numbers.