We study the Vapnik–Chervonenkis density of definable families in certain stable first-order theories. In particular, we obtain uniform bounds on the VC density of definable families in finite $\mathrm {U}$-rank theories without the finite cover property, and we characterize those abelian groups for which there exist uniform bounds on the VC density of definable families.

We explore a notion of pseudofinite dimension, introduced by Hrushovski and Wagner, on an infinite ultraproduct of finite structures. Certain conditions on pseudofinite dimension are identified that guarantee simplicity or supersimplicity of the underlying theory, and that a drop in pseudofinite dimension is equivalent to forking. Under a suitable assumption, a measure-theoretic condition is shown to be equivalent to local stability. Many examples are explored, including vector spaces over finite fields viewed as 2-sorted finite structures, and homocyclic groups. Connections are (...) made to products of sets in finite groups, in particular to word maps, and a generalization of Tao's Algebraic Regularity Lemma is noted. (shrink)

C-minimality is a variant of o-minimality in which structures carry, instead of a linear ordering, a ternary relation interpretable in a natural way on set of maximal chains of a tree. This notion is discussed, a cell-decomposition theorem for C-minimal structures is proved, and a notion of dimension is introduced. It is shown that C-minimal fields are precisely valued algebraically closed fields. It is also shown that, if certain specific ‘bad’ functions are not definable, then algebraic closure has the exchange (...) property, and for definable sets dimension coincides with the rank obtained from algebraic closure. (shrink)

The notion of a strongly determined type over A extending p is introduced, where p .S. A strongly determined extension of p over A assigns, for any model M )- A, a type q S extending p such that, if realises q, then any elementary partial map M → M which fixes acleq pointwise is elementary over . This gives a crude notion of independence which arises very frequently. Examples are provided of many different kinds of theories with strongly determined (...) types, and some without. We investigate a notion of multiplicity for strongly determined types with applications to ‘involved’ finite simple groups, and an analogue of the Finite Equivalence Relation Theorem. Lifting of strongly determined types to covers of a structure is discussed, and an application to finite covers is given. (shrink)

It is shown that no infinite group is interpretable in any structure which is homogeneous in a finite relational language. Related questions are discussed for other ω-categorical structures.

It is shown that if is an o-minimal structure such that is a dense total order and ≾ is a parameter-definable partial order on M, then ≾ has an extension to a definable total order.

A partially ordered set is called k-homogeneous if any isomorphism between k-element subsets extends to an automorphism of . Assuming the set-theoretic assumption ⋄, it is shown that for each k, there exist partially ordered sets of size ϰ1 which embed each countable partial order and are k-homogeneous, but not -homogeneous. This is impossible in the countable case for k ≥ 4.

This is a survey, intended both for group theorists and model theorists, concerning the structure of pseudofinite groups, that is, infinite models of the first-order theory of finite groups. The focus is on concepts from stability theory and generalisations in the context of pseudofinite groups, and on the information this might provide for finite group theory.

We give an example of an imaginary defined in certain valued fields with analytic structure which cannot be coded in the ‘geometric' sorts which suffice to code all imaginaries in the corresponding algebraic setting.