Stable Domination and Independence in Algebraically Closed Valued Fields

This book addresses a gap in the model-theoretic understanding of valued fields that has, until now, limited the interactions of model theory with geometry. It contains significant developments in both pure and applied model theory. Part I of the book is a study of stably dominated types. These form a subset of the type space of a theory that behaves in many ways like the space of types in a stable theory. This part begins with an introduction to the key ideas of stability theory for stably dominated types. Part II continues with an outline of some classical results in the model theory of valued fields and explores the application of stable domination to algebraically closed valued fields. The research presented here is made accessible to the general model theorist by the inclusion of the introductory sections of each part.