Refined bounds on the number of connected components of sign conditions on a variety

TL;DR

This paper derives refined upper bounds on the number of connected components of sign conditions on algebraic varieties, improving previous bounds especially when the degree bounds differ, with applications in discrete geometry.

Contribution

It introduces new bounds on the number of connected components of sign conditions on varieties, distinguishing between degree bounds of defining polynomials and those in the family, improving prior results.

Findings

New bounds are tighter when $d_0 \

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Abstract

Let $\R$ be a real closed field, $\mathcal{P},\mathcal{Q} \subset \R[X_1,...,X_k]$ finite subsets of polynomials, with the degrees of the polynomials in $\mathcal{P}$ (resp. $\mathcal{Q}$) bounded by $d$ (resp. $d_0$). Let $V \subset \R^k$ be the real algebraic variety defined by the polynomials in $\mathcal{Q}$ and suppose that the real dimension of $V$ is bounded by $k'$. We prove that the number of semi-algebraically connected components of the realizations of all realizable sign conditions of the family $\mathcal{P}$ on $V$ is bounded by $$ \displaylines{\sum_{j=0}^{k'}4^j{s +1\choose j}F_{d,d_0,k,k'}(j),}$$ where $s = \card \; \mathcal{P}$, and $$F_{d,d_0,k,k'}(j)= \textstyle\binom{k+1}{k-k'+j+1} \;(2d_0)^{k-k'}d^j\; \max{2d_0,d}^{k'-j} +2(k-j+1) .$$ In case $2 d_0 \leq d$, the above bound can be written simply as $$ \displaylines{\sum_{j = 0}^{k'} {s+1 \choose j}d^{k'} d_0^{k-k'} O(1)^{k} = (sd)^{k'} d_0^{k-k'} O(1)^k} $$ (in this form the bound was suggested by J. Matousek. Our result improves in certain cases (when $d_0 \ll d$) the best known bound of $$ \sum_{1 \leq j \leq k'} \binom{s}{j} 4^{j} d(2d-1)^{k-1} $$ on the same number proved earlier in the case $d=d_0$. The distinction between the bound $d_0$ on the degrees of the polynomials defining the variety $V$ and the bound $d$ on the degrees of the polynomials in $\mathcal{P}$ that appears in the new bound is motivated by several applications in discrete geometry.