Smooth connectivity in real algebraic varieties

Abstract

A standard question in real algebraic geometry is to compute the number of connected components of a real algebraic variety in affine space. By adapting an approach for determining connectivity in complements of real hypersurfaces by Hong, Rohal, Safey El Din, and Schost, algorithms are presented for computing the number of connected components, the Euler characteristic, and deciding the connectivity between two points for a smooth manifold arising as the complement of a real hypersurface of a real algebraic variety. When taking such real hypersurface to be the set of singular points, this yields an approach for determining smooth connectivity in a real algebraic variety. The method is based upon gradient ascent/descent paths on the real algebraic variety and several examples are included to demonstrate the approach.