On the geometry of polar varieties1 B. Bank 2, M. Giusti 3, J. Heintz 4, M. Safey El Din 5, E. Schost 6 April 28, 2009 Abstract The aim of this paper is a comprehensive presentation of the geometrical tools which are necessary to prove the correctness of several up to date algorithms with intrinsic complexity bounds for the problem of real root finding in (mainly) smooth real algebraic varieties given by reduced regular sequences of polynomial equations (see [4, 5, 6, 7], [30] and [31]). The results exposed in this paper form also the geometrical main ingredients for the computational treatment of singular hypersurfaces (see [8]). In particular, we show the non–emptiness of suitable fully generic dual polar varieties of (possibly singular) real varieties, show that fully generic polar varieties may become singular at smooth points of the original variety, give a sufficient criterion when this is not the case, give an intrinsic degree estimate for polar varieties and introduce the new concept of a sufficiently generic polar variety. Our statements are illustrated by examples and a computer experiment. Keywords: Real polynomial equation solving; singularities; classic polar varieties; dual polar varieties; fully generic polar varieties; sufficiently generic polar varieties MSC: 14P05, 14B05, 14Q10, 14Q15, 68W30 1Research partially supported by the following Argentinian, Canadian, French and Spanish agencies and grants: UBACYT X-098, UBACYT X-113, PICT–2006–02067, the Canada Re- search Chair Program, NSERC, BLAN NT05-4-45732 (projet GECKO), MTM 2007-62799. 2Humboldt-Universit¨at zu Berlin, Institut f¨ur Mathematik, D–10099 Berlin, Germany.
[email protected] 3CNRS, Ecole´ Polytechnique, Laboratoire LIX, F–91228 Palaiseau Cedex, France.