On the Betti numbers of semialgebraic sets defined by few quadratic inequalities (Q1360054)

The author studies the topology of semialgebraic sets defined in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) by few quadratic inequalities. The main result of the article is the following one. Theorem. Let \(k\) be a fixed natural number. Then there exists a polynomial \(P_k(n)\) of degree \(O(k)\) such that for any natural \(n\), for any \(k\) quadratic polynomials \(q_i:\mathbb{R}^n \to\mathbb{R}\), \(i=1, \dots, k\), and for any \(1\leq s\leq k\) the sum of the Betti numbers of the set \[ X= \bigl\{x\in \mathbb{R}^n: q_i(x) <0, \quad i=1, \dots, s; \quad q_i(x)\leq 0, \quad i=s+1, \dots, k\bigr\} \] does not exceed \(P_k(n)\). The general Smith-Thom-Milnor bound gives in this situation \((2k)^{O(n)}\) as an upper estimate for the sum of the Betti numbers of \(X\). This estimate is better than the estimate given in the above statement if \(k\) is large. However, if \(k\) is small (fixed) and \(n\) is large, the estimate obtained in the article is better. The author also discusses a possible application of the theorem formulated above to lower bounds of bilinear complexity of a semialgebraic decision problem.