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

Henselian valued fields and inp-minimality

We prove that every ultraproduct of $p$-adics is inp-minimal (i.e., of burden $1$). More generally, we prove an Ax-Kochen type result on preservation of inp-minimality for Henselian valued fields of equicharacteristic $0$ in the RV language.Comment: v.2: 15 pages, minor corrections and presentation improvements; accepted to the Journal of Symbolic Logi

Naming an indiscernible sequence in NIP theories

In this short note we show that if we add predicate for a dense complete indiscernible sequence in a dependent theory then the result is still dependent. This answers a question of Baldwin and Benedikt and implies that every unstable dependent theory has a dependent expansion interpreting linear order.Comment: 3 page

An independence theorem for NTP2 theories

We establish several results regarding dividing and forking in NTP2 theories. We show that dividing is the same as array-dividing. Combining it with existence of strictly invariant sequences we deduce that forking satisfies the chain condition over extension bases (namely, the forking ideal is S1, in Hrushovski's terminology). Using it we prove an independence theorem over extension bases (which, in the case of simple theories, specializes to the ordinary independence theorem). As an application we show that Lascar strong type and compact strong type coincide over extension bases in an NTP2 theory. We also define the dividing order of a theory -- a generalization of Poizat's fundamental order from stable theories -- and give some equivalent characterizations under the assumption of NTP2. The last section is devoted to a refinement of the class of strong theories and its place in the classification hierarchy

External definability and groups in NIP theories

We prove that many properties and invariants of definable groups in NIP theories, such as definable amenability, G/G^{00}, etc., are preserved when passing to the theory of the Shelah expansion by externally definable sets, M^{ext}, of a model M. In the light of these results we continue the study of the "definable topological dynamics" of groups in NIP theories. In particular we prove the Ellis group conjecture relating the Ellis group to G/G^{00} in some new cases, including definably amenable groups in o-minimal structures.Comment: 28 pages. Introduction was expanded and some minor mistakes were corrected. Journal of the London Mathematical Society, accepte