Beyond sets with atoms: definability in first order logic

Abstract: Sets with atoms serve as an alternative to ZFC foundations for mathematics, where some infinite, though highly symmetric sets, behave in a finitistic way. Therefore, one can try to carry over analysis of the classical algorithms from finite structures to some infinite structures. Recent results show that this is indeed possible and leads to many practical applications. In this paper we shall take another route to finite analysis of infinite sets, which extends and sheds more light on sets with atoms. As an application of our theory we give a characterisation of languages recognized by automata definable in fragments of first-order logic.