The study of NIP theories has received much attention from model theorists in the last decade, fuelled by applications to o-minimal structures and valued fields. This book, the first to be written on NIP theories, is an introduction to the subject that will appeal to anyone interested in model theory: graduate students and researchers in the field, as well as those in nearby areas such as combinatorics and algebraic geometry. Without dwelling on any one particular topic, it covers all of the basic notions and gives the reader the tools needed to pursue research in this area. An effort has been made in each chapter to give a concise and elegant path to the main results and to stress the most useful ideas. Particular emphasis is put on honest definitions, handling of indiscernible sequences and measures. The relevant material from other fields of mathematics is made accessible to the logician.

The first book to introduce the rapidly developing subject of NIP theories, for students and researchers in model theory.

Contains the proceedings of the international conference "Ordered Algebraic Structures and Related Topics", held in October 2015, at CIRM, Luminy, Marseilles. Papers cover topics in real analytic geometry, real algebra, and real algebraic geometry including complexity issues, model theory of various algebraic and differential structures, Witt equivalence of fields, and the moment problem.

We’re living in the midst of a scientific revolution that’s captured the general public’s attention and imagination. The aim of this new revolution is to develop a “theory of everything”—a set of laws of physics that will explain all that can be explained, ranging from the tiniest subatomic particle to the universe as a whole. Here, readers will learn the ideas behind the theories, and their effects upon our world, our civilization, and ourselves. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® String Theory explains how this exciting idea holds up against competing theories. In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get: • Clear explanation of quantum mechanics, Einstein’s theories of relativity, and how string theory unites them. • A quick, easy-to-understand overview of competing theories and how they might be tested. • Fast facts about black holes, what’s inside them, how they’re made, and why they’re so paradoxical. • Simple, smart tips to help you visualize extra dimensions.

Model theory is the meta-mathematical study of the concept of mathematical truth. After Afred Tarski coined the term Theory of Models in the early 1950’s, it rapidly became one of the central most active branches of mathematical logic. In the last few decades, ideas that originated within model theory have provided powerful tools to solve problems in a variety of areas of classical mathematics, including algebra, combinatorics, geometry, number theory, and Banach space theory and operator theory. The two volumes of Beyond First Order Model Theory present the reader with a fairly comprehensive vista, rich in width and depth, of some of the most active areas of contemporary research in model theory beyond the realm of the classical first-order viewpoint. Each chapter is intended to serve both as an introduction to a current direction in model theory and as a presentation of results that are not available elsewhere. All the articles are written so that they can be studied independently of one another. This second volume contains introductions to real-valued logic and applications, abstract elementary classes and applications, interconnections between model theory and function spaces, nonstucture theory, and model theory of second-order logic. Features A coherent introduction to current trends in model theory. Contains articles by some of the most influential logicians of the last hundred years. No other publication brings these distinguished authors together. Suitable as a reference for advanced undergraduate, postgraduates, and researchers. Material presented in the book (e.g, abstract elementary classes, first-order logics with dependent sorts, and applications of infinitary logics in set theory) is not easily accessible in the current literature. The various chapters in the book can be studied independently.

Asymptotic differential algebra seeks to understand the solutions of differential equations and their asymptotics from an algebraic point of view. The differential field of transseries plays a central role in the subject. Besides powers of the variable, these series may contain exponential and logarithmic terms. Over the last thirty years, transseries emerged variously as super-exact asymptotic expansions of return maps of analytic vector fields, in connection with Tarski's problem on the field of reals with exponentiation, and in mathematical physics. Their formal nature also makes them suitable for machine computations in computer algebra systems. This self-contained book validates the intuition that the differential field of transseries is a universal domain for asymptotic differential algebra. It does so by establishing in the realm of transseries a complete elimination theory for systems of algebraic differential equations with asymptotic side conditions. Beginning with background chapters on valuations and differential algebra, the book goes on to develop the basic theory of valued differential fields, including a notion of differential-henselianity. Next, H-fields are singled out among ordered valued differential fields to provide an algebraic setting for the common properties of Hardy fields and the differential field of transseries. The study of their extensions culminates in an analogue of the algebraic closure of a field: the Newton-Liouville closure of an H-field. This paves the way to a quantifier elimination with interesting consequences.

Concise introduction to current topics in model theory, including simple and stable theories.

This volume provides a broad perspective on the state of the art in the philosophy and conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics. Its essays take their starting point in the work and influence of Itamar Pitowsky, who has greatly influenced our understanding of what is characteristically non-classical about quantum probabilities and quantum logic, and this serves as a vantage point from which they reflect on key ongoing debates in the field. Readers will find a definitive and multi-faceted description of the major open questions in the foundations of quantum mechanics today, including: Is quantum mechanics a new theory of (contextual) probability? Should the quantum state be interpreted objectively or subjectively? How should probability be understood in the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics? What are the limits of the physical implementation of computation? The impact of this volume goes beyond the exposition of Pitowsky’s influence: it provides a unique collection of essays by leading thinkers containing profound reflections on the field. Chapter 1. Classical logic, classical probability, and quantum mechanics (Samson Abramsky) Chapter 2. Why Scientific Realists Should Reject the Second Dogma of Quantum Mechanic (Valia Allori) Chapter 3. Unscrambling Subjective and Epistemic Probabilities (Guido Bacciagaluppi) Chapter 4. Wigner’s Friend as a Rational Agent (Veronika Baumann, Časlav Brukner) Chapter 5. Pitowsky's Epistemic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and the PBR Theorem (Yemima Ben-Menahem) Chapter 6. On the Mathematical Constitution and Explanation of Physical Facts (Joseph Berkovitz) Chapter 7. Everettian probabilities, the Deutsch-Wallace theorem and the Principal Principle (Harvey R. Brown, Gal Ben Porath) Chapter 8. ‘Two Dogmas’ Redu (Jeffrey Bub) Chapter 9. Physical Computability Theses (B. Jack Copeland, Oron Shagrir) Chapter 10. Agents in Healey’s Pragmatist Quantum Theory: A Comparison with Pitowsky’s Approach to Quantum Mechanics (Mauro Dorato) Chapter 11. Quantum Mechanics As a Theory of Observables and States and, Thereby, As a Theory of Probability (John Earman, Laura Ruetsche) Chapter 12. The Measurement Problem and two Dogmas about Quantum Mechanic (Laura Felline) Chapter 13. There Is More Than One Way to Skin a Cat: Quantum Information Principles In a Finite World(Amit Hagar) Chapter 14. Is Quantum Mechanics a New Theory of Probability? (Richard Healey) Chapter 15. Quantum Mechanics as a Theory of Probability (Meir Hemmo, Orly Shenker) Chapter 16. On the Three Types of Bell's Inequalities (Gábor Hofer-Szabó) Chapter 17. On the Descriptive Power of Probability Logic (Ehud Hrushovski) Chapter 18. The Argument against Quantum Computers (Gil Kalai) Chapter 19. Why a Relativistic Quantum Mechanical World Must be Indeterministic (Avi Levy, Meir Hemmo) Chapter 20. Subjectivists about Quantum Probabilities Should be Realists about Quantum States (Wayne C. Myrvold) Chapter 21. The Relativistic Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Argument (Michael Redhead) Chapter 22. What price statistical independence? How Einstein missed the photon.(Simon Saunders) Chapter 23. How (Maximally) Contextual is Quantum Mechanics? (Andrew W. Simmons) Chapter 24. Roots and (Re)Sources of Value (In)Definiteness Versus Contextuality (Karl Svozil) Chapter 25: Schrödinger’s Reaction to the EPR Paper (Jos Uffink) Chapter 26. Derivations of the Born Rule (Lev Vaidman) Chapter 27. Dynamical States and the Conventionality of (Non-) Classicality (Alexander Wilce).