Abstract We introduce and study the model-theoretic notions of absolute connectedness and type-absolute connectedness for groups. We prove that groups of rational points of split semisimple linear groups (that is, Chevalley groups) over arbitrary infinite fields are absolutely connected and characterize connected Lie groups which are type-absolutely connected. We prove that the class of type-absolutely connected group is exactly the class of discretely topologized groups with the trivial Bohr compactification, that is, the class of minimally almost periodic groups.

Abstract We introduce and study model-theoretic connected components of rings as an analogue of model-theoretic connected components of definable groups. We develop their basic theory and use them to describe both the definable and classical Bohr compactifications of rings. We then use model-theoretic connected components to explicitly calculate Bohr compactifications of some classical matrix groups, such as the discrete Heisenberg group ${\mathrm {UT}}_3({\mathbb {Z}})$ , the continuous Heisenberg group ${\mathrm {UT}}_3({\mathbb {R}})$ , and, more generally, groups of upper unitriangular and invertible upper triangular matrices over unital rings.

For G a group definable in some structure M, we define notions of “definable” compactification of G and “definable” action of G on a compact space X (definable G-flow), where the latter is under a definability of types assumption on M. We describe the universal definable compactification of G as G⁎/(G⁎)M00 and the universal definable G-ambit as the type space SG(M). We also point out the existence and uniqueness of “universal minimal definable G-flows”, and discuss issues of amenability and extreme amenability in this definable category, with a characterization of the latter. For the sake of completeness we also describe the universal (Bohr) compactification and universal G-ambit in model-theoretic terms, when G is a topological group (although it is essentially well-known).

Abstract We prove that for a finitely generated infinite nilpotent group G with structure (G, ·, …), the connected component G*0 of a sufficiently saturated extension G* of G exists and equals We construct an expansion of ℤ by a predicate (ℤ, +, P) such that the type-connected component is strictly smaller than ℤ*0. We generalize this to finitely generated virtually solvable groups. As a corollary of our construction we obtain an optimality result for the van der Waerden theorem for finite partitions of groups.