In recent papers by Alon et al. and Fox et al. it is demonstrated that families of graphs with a semialgebraic edge relation of bounded complexity have strong regularity properties and can be decomposed into very homogeneous semialgebraic pieces up to a small error (typical example is the incidence relation between points and lines on a real plane, or higher dimensional analogues). We show that in fact the theory can be developed for families of graphs definable in a structure satisfying a certain model theoretic property called distality, with respect to a large class of measures (this applies in particular to graphs definable in arbitrary o-minimal theories and in p-adics). (Joint work with Sergei Starchenko.)[-]

If CCM denotes the theory of compact complex spaces in the langauge of complex-analytic sets, then the theory of models of CCM equipped with an automorphism has a model companion, denoted by CCMA. The relationship to meromorphic dynamical systems is the same as that of ACFA to rational dynamical systems. I will discuss recent joint work with Martin Bays and Martin Hils that begins a systematic study of CCMA as an expansion of ACFA. Particular topics we consider include: stable embeddedness, imaginaries, and the Zilber dichotomy.[-]

In the past few years, conjectures have been made and partial results achieved on unlikely intersections in complex dynamics, following the program initiated by Baker-DeMarco. I will explain their dynamical generalization of the famous André-Oort conjecture on CM points in moduli spaces of abelian varieties. Ghioca, Nguyen, Ye, and myself recently proved the first complete case of this conjecture, for pairs of unicritical polynomials, and I will discuss our result and the connection to invariant subvarieties of $P1 \times P1$, and the structure of the Mandelbrot set.[-]

Difference algebraic groups, i.e, groups defined by algebraic difference equations occur naturally as the Galois groups of linear differential or difference equations depending on a discrete parameter. If the linear equation has a full set of algebraic solutions, the corresponding Galois group is an étale difference algebraic group. Like étale algebraic groups can be described as finite groups with a continuous action of the absolute Galois group of the base field, étale difference algebraic groups can be described as certain profinite groups with some extra structure. I will present a decomposition theorem for étale difference algebraic groups, which shows that any étale difference algebraic group can be build from étale algebraic groups and finite groups equipped with an endomorphism.[-]