Real root finding for equivariant semi-algebraic systems

Let $R$ be a real closed field. We consider basic semi-algebraic sets defined by $n$-variate equations/inequalities of $s$ symmetric polynomials and an equivariant family of polynomials, all of them of degree bounded by $2d < n$. Such a semi-algebraic set is invariant by the action of the symmetric group. We show that such a set is either empty or it contains a point with at most $2d-1$ distinct coordinates. Combining this geometric result with efficient algorithms for real root finding (based on the critical point method), one can decide the emptiness of basic semi-algebraic sets defined by $s$ polynomials of degree $d$ in time $(sn)^{O(d)}$. This improves the state-of-the-art which is exponential in $n$. When the variables $x_1, \ldots, x_n$ are quantified and the coefficients of the input system depend on parameters $y_1, \ldots, y_t$, one also demonstrates that the corresponding one-block quantifier elimination problem can be solved in time $(sn)^{O(dt)}$

CAD Adjacency Computation Using Validated Numerics

We present an algorithm for computation of cell adjacencies for well-based cylindrical algebraic decomposition. Cell adjacency information can be used to compute topological operations e.g. closure, boundary, connected components, and topological properties e.g. homology groups. Other applications include visualization and path planning. Our algorithm determines cell adjacency information using validated numerical methods similar to those used in CAD construction, thus computing CAD with adjacency information in time comparable to that of computing CAD without adjacency information. We report on implementation of the algorithm and present empirical data.Comment: 20 page