We prove that the class of separably algebraically closed valued fields equipped with a distinguished Frobenius endomorphism $x \mapsto x^q$ is decidable, uniformly in q. The result is a simultaneous generalization of the work of Chatzidakis and Hrushovski (in the case of the trivial valuation) and the work of the first author and Hrushovski (in the case where the fields are algebraically closed).

The logical setting for the proof is a model completeness result for valued fields equipped with an endomorphism $\sigma $ which is locally infinitely contracting and fails to be onto. Namely, we prove the existence of a model complete theory $\widetilde {\mathrm {VFE}}$ amalgamating the theories $\mathrm {SCFE}$ and $\widetilde {\mathrm {VFA}}$ introduced in [5] and [11], respectively. In characteristic zero, we also prove that $\widetilde {\mathrm {VFE}}$ is NTP$_2$ and classify the stationary types: they are precisely those orthogonal to the fixed field and the value group.

We introduceand study anatural class of fields in which certain first-order definable sets are existentially definable, and characterise this class by a number of equivalent conditions. Weshow that global fields belong to this class, and in particular obtain a number of new existential (or diophantine) predicates over global fields.