The elementary theory of surreal arithmetic is bi-interpretable with set theory, Notre Dame Logic Seminar, November 2025

This will be a talk for the Logic Seminar at the University of Notre Dame, Tuesday 18 November 20215 2pm 125 Hayes-Healy Building.

Abstract. I shall introduce what I call the first-order elementary theory of surreal arithmetic, a theory that is true in the surreal field when equipped with its birthday order structure. This structure, I shall prove, is bi-interpretable with the set-theoretic universe (V,∈), and indeed the theory of surreal arithmetic SA is bi-interpretable with ZFC. This is very new joint work in progress with myself, Junhong Chen, and Ruizhi Yang, of Fudan University, Shanghai.