Euler characteristic and Lipschitz-Killing curvatures of closed semi-algebraic sets (Q431063)

Twenty-eight years ago this reviewer heard and read for the first time an article concerning metric properties of semialgebraic sets due to \textit{Y. Yomdin} [in: Géométrie algébrique et applications, C. R. 2ième Conf. int., La Rabida/Espagne 1984, III: Géométrie réelle. Systémes différentiels et théorie de Hodge, Trav. Cours 24, 165--183 (1987; Zbl 0632.58009)]. After this pioneer paper the subject received an strong development, extending the original ideas to the more general setting of subanalytic and semianalytic sets due to the contributions of many important mathematicians; J. H. G. Fu, C. Mccrory, L. Bröcker, A. Bernig, M. Kuppe, and N. Dutertre among others. In particular, using methods from geometric measure theory, Fu developed integral geometry for compact subanalytic subsets \(X\subset\mathbb R^n\) in [\textit{J. H. G. Fu}, Am. J. Math. 116, No. 4, 819--880 (1994; Zbl 0818.53091)]. He constructed a sequence of curvature neasures \(\Lambda_j(X,-)\) for \(0\leq j\leq n\), called the Lipschitz-Killing measures, and proved several integral geometry formulae. In particular he showed that \(\Lambda(X,X)=\chi(X)\), the Euler characteristic of \(X\). In [ Adv. Geom. 8, No. 1, 33--51 (2008; Zbl 1222.14124)] the author of the paper under review extended the Gauss-Bonnet formula to closed semialgebraic sets, without any compactness assumption. Let \(\{K_R:R>0\}\) be an exhaustive family of compact subsets of a closed semialgebraic set \(X\subset\mathbb R^n\). The limit \(\lim_{R\to+\infty}\Lambda_0(X,K_R)\) is finite and independent of the choice of the family, and it is denoted \(\Lambda_0(X,X)\). Dutertre proved that \[ \Lambda_0(X,X)=\chi(X)-\frac{\chi(Lk^{\infty}(X))}{2}-\frac{1}{2\;\mathrm{vol}(\mathbb S^{n-1})}\int_{\mathbb S^{n-1}}\chi(Lk^{\infty}(X\cap v^{\perp}))dv, \] where \(Lk^{\infty}(X))=X\cap\mathbb S_R^{n-1}\), with \(R\gg 1\), is the link at infinity of \(X\). The paper under review can be considered the natural continuation of the article just quoted, and to state its main results it is necessary to introduce some extra terminology. Given integers \(0\leq k\leq n\) let \(g_n^k\) be the volume of the Grassmannian \(G_n^k\) of \(k\)-dimensional linear subspaces in \(\mathbb R^n\). Let \(b_k\) be the volume of the \(k\)-dimensional unit ball, and for each positive real number \(R\) let \(B_R\) be the ball of radius \(R\) centered at the origin of \(\mathbb R^n\). The author proves in Thm. 3.13 the following equalities: for every closed semialgebraic subset \(X\) of \(\mathbb R^n\) and each \(1\leq k\leq n-2\), \[ \begin{multlined} \lim_{R\to+\infty}\frac{\Lambda_k(X,X\cap B_R)}{b_kR^k}=\frac{1}{2g_{n}^{n-k+1}}\int_{G_n^{n-k+1}}\chi(Lk^{\infty}(X\cap L))dL\\ -\frac{1}{2g_{n}^{n-k-1}}\int_{G_n^{n-k-1}}\chi(Lk^{\infty}(X\cap H))dH.\end{multlined} \] For \(k=n-1\) and \(k=n\) the second summand in the above formulae disappears, and it is proved in Corollary 3.14 that \[ \lim_{R\to+\infty}\frac{\Lambda_{n-1}(X,X\cap B_R)}{b_{n-1}R^{n-1}}=\frac{1}{2g_{n}^{2}}\int_{G_n^{2}}\chi(Lk^{\infty}(X\cap L))dL \] \[ \lim_{R\to+\infty}\frac{\Lambda_{n}(X,X\cap B_R)}{b_nR^n}=\frac{1}{2g_{n}^1}\int_{G_{n}^{1}}\chi(Lk^{\infty}(X\cap L))dL. \] Combining this with the above Gauss-Bonnet formula the following equality is proved in Thm. 3.15: \[ \chi(X)=\Lambda_0(X,X)+\sum_{k=1}^n\lim_{R\to+\infty}\frac{\Lambda_k(X,X\cap B_R)}{b_kR^k}. \] The reading of this excellent paper is a pleasure; everything is very well explained and justified, and it is not needed to be a true specialist in the field to study it.