In the present paper we shall prove that countable ω-categorical simple CM-trivial theories and countable ω-categorical simple theories with strong stable forking are low. In addition, we observe that simple theories of bounded finite weight are low.

We study local strengthenings of the simplicity condition. In particular, we define and study a local Lascar rank, as well as short, low, supershort and superlow theories. An example of a low, non supershort theory is given.

We use exact saturation to study the complexity of unstable theories, showing that a variant of this notion called pseudo-elementary class (PC)-exact saturation meaningfully reflects combinatorial dividing lines. We study PC-exact saturation for stable and simple theories. Among other results, we show that PC-exact saturation characterizes the stability cardinals of size at least continuum of a countable stable theory and, additionally, that simple unstable theories have PC-exact saturation at singular cardinals satisfying mild set-theoretic hypotheses. This had previously been open even (...) for the random graph. We characterize supersimplicity of countable theories in terms of having PC-exact saturation at singular cardinals of countable cofinality. We also consider the local analog of PC-exact saturation, showing that local PC-exact saturation for singular cardinals of countable cofinality characterizes supershort theories. (shrink)

We introduce several concepts concerning the indiscernibility of trees. A tree is by definition an ordered set such that, for any a∈O, the initial segment {b∈O:b (...) A of the form η∈O, where O is a tree, and aη labeled by η is an element in M. Such a set A is also called a tree in this paper. We study the indiscernibility of trees A in general settings and apply the obtained results to the study of unstable theories. (shrink)

Dividing chains have been used as conditions to isolate adequate subclasses of simple theories. In the first part of this paper we present an introduction to the area. We give an overview on fundamental notions and present proofs of some of the basic and well-known facts related to dividing chains in simple theories. In the second part we discuss various characterizations of the subclass of low theories. Our main theorem generalizes and slightly extends a well-known fact about the connection between (...) dividing chains and Morley sequences (in our case: independent sequences). Moreover, we are able to give a proof that is shorter than the original one. This result motivates us to introduce a special property of formulas concerning independent dividing chains: For any dividing chain there exists an independent dividing chain of the same length. We study this property in the context of low, short and ω -categorical simple theories, outline some examples and define subclasses of low and short theories, which imply this property. The results give rise to further studies of the relationships between some subclasses of simple theories. (shrink)