Canonical forking in AECs (Q278766)

The authors investigate the characterization of independence relations in various non-elementary classes. The first axiomatic definition of independence in abstract elementary classes (AECs) was given by \textit{S. Shelah} [Lect. Notes Math. 1292, 264--418 (1987; Zbl 0637.03028)]. He showed that it generalizes first-order forking. The first and the second author [``Forking in short and tame AECs'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1306.6562}] proved that every nice ACE has an independence relation. Here, the authors show that this relation is unique: in any given ACE, there can exist at most one independence relation that satisfies existence, extension, uniqueness and local character. They show that under some reasonable conditions, the coheir relation has local character and is canonical. They also show that Shelah's weakly successful good \(\lambda\)-frames are canonical: an AEC can have at most one such frame.