Reduction of database independence to dividing in atomless Boolean algebras (Q283121)

In the paper, the authors put two questions: how database independence (i.e., embedded multivalued dependence) is related to the general theory of independence as developed in model theory, and is there a way to make sense of similarities between database independence and stochastic independence from the point of view of model theory. The questions are answered positively by reducing database independence to the so called (first-order) dividing calculus in the theory of atomless Boolean algebras. The reduction shows that both database independence and stochastic independence are essentially based on the same independence relation -- free amalgamation, considered in Boolean algebras and probability algebras, respectively. In fact, the former case of independence may be considered as a discrete version of the latter. Similarities between database independence and team semantics in a version of independence logic (see, e.g., [\textit{E. Grädel} and \textit{J. Väänänen}, Stud. Log. 101, No. 2, 399--410 (2013; Zbl 1272.03125)]) are discussed in short.