Distal and non-distal NIP theories

We study one way in which stable phenomena can exist in an NIP theory. We start by defining a notion of 'pure instability' that we call 'distality' in which no such phenomenon occurs. O-minimal theories and the p-adics for example are distal. Next, we try to understand what happens when distality fails. Given a type p over a sufficiently saturated model, we extract, in some sense, the stable part of p and define a notion of stable-independence which is implied by non-forking and has bounded weight. As an application, we show that the expansion of a model by traces of externally definable sets from some adequate indiscernible sequence eliminates quantifiers

Dp-minimality: basic facts and examples

We study the notion of dp-minimality, beginning by providing several essential facts, establishing several equivalent definitions, and comparing dp-minimality to other minimality notions. The rest of the paper is dedicated to examples. We establish via a simple proof that any weakly o-minimal theory is dp-minimal and then give an example of a weakly o-minimal group not obtained by adding traces of externally definable sets. Next we give an example of a divisible ordered Abelian group which is dp-minimal and not weakly o-minimal. Finally we establish that the field of p-adic numbers is dp-minimal.Comment: 19 pages; simplified proof for the p-adic