Computing the Betti numbers of semi-algebraic sets defined by partly quadratic systems of polynomials

Abstract

Let $\R$ be a real closed field, ${\mathcal Q} \subset \R[Y_1,...,Y_\ell,X_1,...,X_k],$ with \deg_{Y}(Q) \leq 2, \deg_{X}(Q) \leq d, Q \in {\mathcal Q}, #({\mathcal Q})=m, and ${\mathcal P} \subset \R[X_1,...,X_k]$ with \deg_{X}(P) \leq d, P \in {\mathcal P}, #({\mathcal P})=s. Let $S \subset \R^{\ell+k}$ be a semi-algebraic set defined by a Boolean formula without negations, with atoms $P=0, P \geq 0, P \leq 0, P \in {\mathcal P} \cup {\mathcal Q}$. We describe an algorithm for computing the the Betti numbers of $S$. The complexity of the algorithm is bounded by $(\ell s m d)^{2^{O(m+k)}}$. The complexity of the algorithm interpolates between the doubly exponential time bounds for the known algorithms in the general case, and the polynomial complexity in case of semi-algebraic sets defined by few quadratic inequalities known previously. Moreover, for fixed $m$ and $k$ this algorithm has polynomial time complexity in the remaining parameters.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure