Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2015
We describe a model-theoretic setting for the study of Shimura varieties, and study the interaction between model theory and arithmetic geometry in this setting. In particular, we show that the model-theoretic statement of a certain ${\mathcal{L}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{1},\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$-sentence having a unique model of cardinality $\aleph _{1}$ is equivalent to a condition regarding certain Galois representations associated with Hodge-generic points. We then show that for modular and Shimura curves this ${\mathcal{L}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{1},\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$-sentence has a unique model in every infinite cardinality. In the process, we prove a new characterisation of the special points on any Shimura variety.