We study the theory Tm,n of existentially closed incidence structures omitting the complete incidence structure Km,n, which can also be viewed as existentially closed Km,n-free bipartite graphs. In the case m = n = 2, this is the theory of existentially closed projective planes. We give an $\forall \exists$-axiomatization of Tm,n, show that Tm,n does not have a countable saturated model when m, n ≥ 2, and show that the existence of a prime model for T2,2 is equivalent to a longstanding open question about finite projective planes. Finally, we analyze model theoretic notions of complexity for Tm,n. We show that Tm,n is NSOP1, but not simple when m, n ≥ 2, and we show that Tm,n has weak elimination of imaginaries but not full elimination of imaginaries. These results rely on combinatorial characterizations of various notions of independence, including algebraic independence, Kim independence, and forking independence.

Let ${\cal M}$ be ternary, homogeneous and simple. We prove that if ${\cal M}$ is finitely constrained, then it is supersimple with finite SU-rank and dependence is k-trivial for some k < ω and for finite sets of real elements. Now suppose that, in addition, ${\cal M}$ is supersimple with SU-rank 1. If ${\cal M}$ is finitely constrained then algebraic closure in ${\cal M}$ is trivial. We also find connections between the nature of the constraints of ${\cal M}$, the nature of the amalgamations allowed by the age of ${\cal M}$, and the nature of definable equivalence relations. A key method of proof is to “extract” constraints (of ${\cal M}$) from instances of dividing and from definable equivalence relations. Finally, we give new examples, including an uncountable family, of ternary homogeneous supersimple structures of SU-rank 1.

We prove model completeness for the expansion of the real field by the Weierstrass ℘ function as a function of the variable z and the parameter (or period) τ. We need to existentially define the partial derivatives of the ℘ function with respect to the variable z and the parameter τ. To obtain this result, it is necessary to include in the structure function symbols for the unrestricted exponential function and restricted sine function, the Weierstrass ζ function and the quasi-modular form E2 (we conjecture that these functions are not existentially definable from the functions ℘ alone or even if we use the exponential and restricted sine functions). We prove some auxiliary model-completeness results with the same functions composed with appropriate change of variables. In the conclusion, we make some remarks about the non-effectiveness of our proof and the difficulties to be overcome to obtain an effective model-completeness result, and how to extend these results to appropriate expansion of the real field by automorphic forms.

We prove field quantifier elimination for valued fields endowed with both an analytic structure that is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$-Henselian and an automorphism that is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$-Henselian. From this result we can deduce various Ax–Kochen–Eršov type results with respect to completeness and the independence property. The main example we are interested in is the field of Witt vectors on the algebraic closure of $\mathbb{F}_{p}$ endowed with its natural analytic structure and the lifting of the Frobenius. It turns out we can give a (reasonable) axiomatization of its first-order theory and that this theory does not have the independence property.

We find the model completion of the theory modules over , where is a finitely generated commutative algebra over a field K. This is done in a context where the field K and the module are represented by sorts in the theory, so that constructible sets associated with a module can be interpreted in this language. The language is expanded by additional sorts for the Grassmanians of all powers of Kn, which are necessary to achieve quantifier elimination.

The result turns out to be that the model completion is the theory of a certain class of “big” injective modules. In particular, it is shown that the class of injective modules is itself elementary. We also obtain an explicit description of the types in this theory.

Let T be a complete o-minimal extension of the theory of real closed fields. We characterize the convex hulls of elementary substructures of models of T and show that the residue field of such a convex hull has a natural expansion to a model of T. We give a quantifier elimination relative to T for the theory of pairs (ℛ, V) where ℛ ⊨ T and V ≠ ℛ is the convex hull of an elementary substructure of ℛ. We deduce that the theory of such pairs is complete and weakly o-minimal. We also give a quantifier elimination relative to T for the theory of pairs with ℛ a model of T and a proper elementary substructure that is Dedekind complete in ℛ. We deduce that the theory of such “tame” pairs is complete.