GROUP CONFIGURATIONS AND GERMS IN SIMPLE THEORIES ITAY BEN-YAACOV Abstract. We develop the theory of germs of generic functions in simple theories. Starting with an algebraic quadrangle (or other similar hypotheses), we obtain an “almost” generic group chunk, where the product is defined up to a bounded number of possible values. This is the first step towards the proof of the group configuration theorem for simple theories, which is completed in [BTW]. Introduction This paper represents the first step towards the proof of the group configuration theorem for simple theories, which is achieved in [BTW]. In its stable version, this theorem is one of the cornerstones of geometric stability theory. It has many vari- ants, stating more or less that if some dependence/independence situation exists, then there is a non-trivial group behind it, and in a one-based theory, every non-trivial dependence/independence situation gives rise to a group (see [Pil96]). The question of generalising it to simple theories arises naturally. In the stable case, the proof can be decomposed into two main steps: (1) Obtain a generic group chunk whose elements are germs of generic functions, and whose product is the composition. (2) Apply the Weil-Hrushovski generic group chunk theorem. The second step is generalised to simple theories in [Wag01, Section 3].
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