On VC-minimal theories and variants (Q377466)

Three new concepts related to VC-minimality are introduced and studied. The first is convex orderability: an infinite \(L\)-structure \((M,\dots)\) is convexly orderable if there is a (possibly non-definable) total ordering \(<\) of \(M\) such that for all \(L\)-formulas \(\phi(x,\bar y)\) there is an integer \(K\) such that for all \(\bar b\in M\) the set \(\varphi(M,\bar b)\) is a union of \(\leqslant K\) \(<\)-convex subsets. It is proved that convex orderability is preserved under elementary equivalence, hence it is a property of complete theories; it is proved that it lies strictly between VC-minimality and dp-minimality. Unlike VC-minimality, convex orderability is preserved in reducts and the question of whether it is the best such approximation of VC-minimality is left open. The other new notions are weak VC-minimality that lies between VC-minimality and dependence, and full VC-minimality lying between weak o-minimality and VC-minimality. It is proved that any unstable, weakly VC-minimal theory interprets an infinite linear ordering, and this fact is used to confirm the Kueker conjecture for weakly VC-minimal theories. The last section of the article contains a diagram of known interrelations between the mentioned notions, strong minimality and low VC-density. Several open problems are stated.