Definable henselian valuations

In this note we investigate the question whether a henselian valued field carries a non-trivial 0-definable henselian valuation (in the language of rings). It follows from the work of Prestel and Ziegler that there are henselian valued fields which do not admit a 0-definable non-trivial henselian valuation. We give conditions on the residue field which ensure the existence of a parameter-free definiton. In particular, we show that a henselian valued field admits a non-trivial 0-definable valuation when the residue field is separably closed or sufficiently non-henselian, or when the absolute Galois group of the (residue) field is non-universal.Comment: 14 pages, revised versio

Strongly NIP almost real closed fields

The following conjecture is due to Shelah-Hasson: Any infinite strongly NIP field is either real closed, algebraically closed, or admits a non-trivial definable henselian valuation, in the language of rings. We specialise this conjecture to ordered fields in the language of ordered rings, which leads towards a systematic study of the class of strongly NIP almost real closed fields. As a result, we obtain a complete characterisation of this class.Comment: To appear in MLQ Math. Log. Q. A previous version of this preprint was part of arXiv:1810.10377. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2010.1183

Definable valuations on ordered fields

We study the definability of convex valuations on ordered fields, with a particular focus on the distinguished subclass of henselian valuations. In the setting of ordered fields, one can consider definability both in the language of rings $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{r}}$ and in the richer language of ordered rings $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{or}}$. We analyse and compare definability in both languages and show the following contrary results: while there are convex valuations that are definable in the language $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{or}}$ but not in the language $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{r}}$, any $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{or}}$-definable henselian valuation is already $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{r}}$-definable. To prove the latter, we show that the value group and the ordered residue field of an ordered henselian valued field are stably embedded (as an ordered abelian group, respectively as an ordered field). Moreover, we show that in almost real closed fields any $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{or}}$-definable valuation is henselian.Comment: 17 page

Model Theory: groups, geometry, and combinatorics

This conference was about recent interactions of model theory with combinatorics, geometric group theory and the theory of valued fields, and the underlying pure model-theoretic developments. Its aim was to report on recent results in the area, and to foster communication between the different communities