Polynomial approximation of Berkovich spaces and definable types (Q2448334)

Given an algebraic variety over a non-Archimedean field, its Berkovich analytification is a topological space on which one can study functions that are analytic in a meaningful sense. The points of the Berkovich analytification of affine space over a valued field, are valuations on the polynomial ring in \(n\)-variables that extend the valuation on the ground field. Unlike previous approaches to the study of analytic varieties over non-Archimedean fields, these spaces possess a number of remarkable topological properties: they are locally contractible, Hausdorff, path connected when the variety is connected, and are homotopy equivalent to polyhedral complexes. However, the spaces themselves are very complicated, and are locally modeled on inverse limits of diagrams of polyhedra. In fact, even the analytification of the affine plane over a trivially valued field does not have a complete description. In the present paper, the author considers the analytification of affine space over a spherically complete field and explains that while a full description of the analytification of affine space should not be possible in dimension 2 and larger, one can form a useful series of approximations, provided that one is only interested in functions on affine space of bounded degree. More precisely, fixing a point in analytic affine space of dimension \(n\) fixing a degree \(d\), there is a particularly simple subspace that determines the value of any polynomial of degree at most d at the point. In other words, when looking at the valuations of polynomials of bounded degree, one does not require the entirety of the Berkovich space, in a very precise sense. In this sense, these subsets form ``approximations'' of the Berkovich space. These approximations are in a sense analogous to the description of the Berkovich affine line in terms of supremum norms on disks.