Theories without the tree property of the second kind

We initiate a systematic study of the class of theories without the tree property of the second kind - NTP2. Most importantly, we show: the burden is "sub-multiplicative" in arbitrary theories (in particular, if a theory has TP2 then there is a formula with a single variable witnessing this); NTP2 is equivalent to the generalized Kim's lemma and to the boundedness of ist-weight; the dp-rank of a type in an arbitrary theory is witnessed by mutually indiscernible sequences of realizations of the type, after adding some parameters - so the dp-rank of a 1-type in any theory is always witnessed by sequences of singletons; in NTP2 theories, simple types are co-simple, characterized by the co-independence theorem, and forking between the realizations of a simple type and arbitrary elements satisfies full symmetry; a Henselian valued field of characteristic (0,0) is NTP2 (strong, of finite burden) if and only if the residue field is NTP2 (the residue field and the value group are strong, of finite burden respectively), so in particular any ultraproduct of p-adics is NTP2; adding a generic predicate to a geometric NTP2 theory preserves NTP2.Comment: 35 pages; v.3: a discussion and a Conjecture 2.7 on the sub-additivity of burden had been added; Section 3.1 on the SOPn hierarchy restricted to NTP2 theories had been added; Problem 7.13 had been updated; numbering of theorems had been changed and some minor typos were fixed; Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, accepte

Externally definable sets and dependent pairs

We prove that externally definable sets in first order NIP theories have honest definitions, giving a new proof of Shelah's expansion theorem. Also we discuss a weak notion of stable embeddedness true in this context. Those results are then used to prove a general theorem on dependent pairs, which in particular answers a question of Baldwin and Benedikt on naming an indiscernible sequence.Comment: 17 pages, some typos and mistakes corrected, overall presentation improved, more details for the examples are give

Periodic waves in bimodal optical fibers

We consider coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations (CNLSE) which govern the propagation of nonlinear waves in bimodal optical fibers. The nonlinear transform of a dual-frequency signal is used to generate an ultra-short-pulse train. To predict the energy and width of pulses in the train, we derive three new types of travelling periodic-wave solutions, using the Hirota bilinear method. We also show that all the previously reported periodic wave solutions of CNLSE can be derived in a systematic way, using the Hirota method.Comment: 10 pages with 2 figures. "Optics Communications, in press

On model-theoretic tree properties

We study model theoretic tree properties ($\text{TP}, \text{TP}_1, \text{TP}_2$) and their associated cardinal invariants ($\kappa_{\text{cdt}}, \kappa_{\text{sct}}, \kappa_{\text{inp}}$, respectively). In particular, we obtain a quantitative refinement of Shelah's theorem ($\text{TP} \Rightarrow \text{TP}_1 \lor \text{TP}_2$) for countable theories, show that $\text{TP}_1$ is always witnessed by a formula in a single variable (partially answering a question of Shelah) and that weak $k-\text{TP}_1$ is equivalent to $\text{TP}_1$ (answering a question of Kim and Kim). Besides, we give a characterization of $\text{NSOP}_1$ via a version of independent amalgamation of types and apply this criterion to verify that some examples in the literature are indeed $\text{NSOP}_1$.Comment: v.2: Proofs of Lemma 5.2 and Prop 4.9 were clarified, Prop 6.16 - corrected; minor presentation improvements; accepted to the Journal of Mathematical Logi